DUBAI — Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych advanced to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championship in sharply contrasting styles Wednesday. Fourth-seeded Federer had to see off a serious challenge from 48th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic before coming through 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3, while Berdych, seeded third, eased to a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 win over Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. Federer came into his two-hour, eight-minute match with a 12-2 winning record over Stepanek. He's now won their last nine meetings dating back to the 2008 Rome quarterfinals. “I got broken four times which is difficult, but it's good to win those type of matches,” said Federer, who faced eight break points against his serve. Federer handled the first set with confidence, but started to falter as Stepanek became more aggressive in the second set. Federer managed to rebound from 4-2 down in the second set to force a tiebreaker — where Stepanek raced into a 6-2 and a first set point when Federer double faulted. Stepanek won the set on his third set point when Federer netted a forehand. Stepanek also took an early 2-0 lead in the third set, but Federer rebounded to go ahead 5-2 to serve for the match. Federer's serve was broken when he double faulted in the eighth game. Stepanek, however, surrendered his serve in the next game to allow Federer to move into the quarterfinals. He'll now face another Czech player in Lukas Rosol, who upset eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4). Berdych, who will face fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, has won his last eight matches. Despite Berdych having trouble with his first serve — his percentage was a ghastly 37 percent — he controlled the match. He lost his serve once, and won 12 of the last 14 points. Tsonga won his second-round match by walkover when his opponent, Nikolay Davydenko, withdrew with a rib injury. Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Andrea Seppi of Italy. Kohlschreiber will play Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri, who beat Somdev Devvarman of India 6-3, 7-5. In another match, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia defeated James Ward of Great britain 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). Murray, Ferrer advance In Mexico, David Ferrer and Andy Murray, the top two seeded players in the Mexican Open, advanced to the second round Tuesday, while third-seeded American John Isner became the first major casualty of the tournament, losing 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to Croatia's Ivo Karlovic. Ferrer, the favorite in Acapulco, had a convincing 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin, while Murray overcame a sluggish start and claimed a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Pablo Andujar, from Spain. In the round-of-16, Ferrer, who is trying to win on Mexican soil for the fourth time in his career, will play Spanish compatriot Feliciano Lopez. Earlier, Karlovic served 15 aces to Isner, who fired eight, in a match between two of the game's biggest servers. Sousa of Portugal came back to defeat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. South Africa's Kevin Anderson downed Stephane Robert of France 6-2, 7-6 (7) and will next play America's Sam Querrey. Also, Alexandr Dolgopolov, from the Ukraine, beat Canada's Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-2 and seventh-seeded Ernests Gulbis had a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Taiwan's Yen-hsun Lu. On the women's side of the combined ATP-WTA tournament, top-seeded Dominika Cibulkova had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Urszula Radwanska, from Poland, Eugenie Bouchard eliminated Shahar Peer from Israel 6-2, 6-2, American Victoria Duval had a 6-2, 6-4 win over Czech Iveta Melzer and Estonian Kai Kanepi prevailed 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 against Jana Cepelova, from Slovakia. — Agencies
