John Isner struggled for nearly three hours as he held off good friend and doubles partner James Blake 7-6 (10-8), 6-7 (3-7), 7-5 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP Atlanta Championships. Isner will face off Friday against Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun, who rallied to beat Bosnian-born Australian Marinko Matosevic 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. South African second seed Kevin Anderson continued the best season of his career, downing Michael Russell 6-1, 7-5. He will play Friday against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who notched 15 aces in a 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-2 victory over Robby Ginepri. Pavlyuchenkova prevails Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova survived early pressure from fellow Russian Elena Bovina to reach the quarterfinals of the Baku Cup Thursday, winning 6-4, 6-0. Kateryna Bondarenko continued her recent good form by upsetting Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-1, 6-4. Georgia's Anna Tatishvili also advanced to the quarterfinals when she defeated compatriot Tatia Mikadze 7-6 (4), 6-3. Monfils in quarters In Hamburg, top-seeded Gael Monfils of France beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the German Open Thursday. Simon outlasted Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. Second-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria advanced by beating 15th-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-3. He will next face eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who beat German wild card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 7-5, 6-2. Third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-5 and will next meet another German, sixth-seeded Florian Mayer, who beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-5, 7-5. Fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia beat German wild card Julian Reister 6-3, 6-3 and will next face No. 12 Marin Cilic of Croatia. Cilic rallied to beat wild card Tobias Kamke of Germany 3-6, 6-3, 6
