Aravane Rezai of France advanced to the quarterfinals of the Baku Cup Wednesday when third-seeded Russian Elena Vesnina was forced to retire due to a viral illness at 6-3, 1-0. Fifth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania also failed to advance, losing 7-6 (2), 6-2 to Galina Voskoboeva. Seventh seed Ksenia Pervak advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Vesna Dolonts in an all-Russian clash, and Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus. Monfils, Melzer advance In Hamburg, top-seeded Gael Monfils of France bounced back from a first-round loss last week in Stuttgart to beat Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos 6-4, 6-2 Wednesday and advance to the third round of the German Open. Second-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria advanced by beating Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. Third-seeded Nicolas Almagro also went through, beating Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4. German wild card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe beat Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 7-6 (5). Juan Monaco of Argentina beat ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-2, 6-4 and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic ousted No. 13 Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 7-5. Sixth-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany beat Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan 6-4, 7-6 (5) and No. 8 Fernando Verdasco defeated fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-3. No. 12 Marin Cilic of Croatia fired 16 aces in beating German qualifier Bastian Knittel 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4. Hewitt through In Atlanta, Davis Cup teammates Lleyton Hewitt and Marinko Matosevic led an Aussie assault Tuesday as the unseeded pair gate-crashed into the second round of the ATP Tour's Atlanta Championships. Former No. 1 Hewitt scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over American qualifier Phillip Simmonds. Matosevic upset Russian sixth seed Igor Kunitsyn 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 7-5 Hewitt next takes on Rajeev Ram of the US, who upset Bulgarian fifth seed Gregor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4.
