Roger Federer stuttered into the quarterfinals of his hometown tournament in Basel on Thursday after an unexpectedly tough 7-6, 7-6 second round win over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen. Federer will face unseeded Italian Simone Bolelli in the quarterfinals, after the world number 42 beat Spain's Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-2. Argentine second and third seeds David Nalbandian and Juan Martin Del Potro and American fourth seed James Blake also booking quarterfinals places. Nalbandian beat Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen 6-4, 5-7, 7-6. He now meets German qualifier Benjamin Becker in the last eight. Del Potro wrapped up a 6-3, 6-3 win over local wild card Stephane Bohli. Blake overcame some stiff early resistance from Spain's Oscar Hernandez 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Roddick, Tsonga advance In France, second-seeded Richard Gasquet's poor form continuing with another loss prevented all four top seeds from reaching the Lyon Grand Prix quarterfinals on Thursday. Top-seeded Andy Roddick, third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and fourth-seeded Gilles Simon also struggled but prevailed. Roddick overcame resilient defense from fellow American Robby Ginepri to win 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) and set up a quarterfinal against Swede Robin Soderling, who scored a 6-1, 6-2 win over Christophe Rochus. Steve Darcis of Belgium upset Gasquet 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), Tsonga beat Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, and Simon outlasted Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-4. Also, Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat No. 8 Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-4, 6-1. Murray thru, Safin upset In Russia, defending champion Andy Murray beat Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-2 Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the St. Petersburg Open, while eighth-seeded Marat Safin was beaten in a second-round upset. Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan beat Safin 6-4, 6-2 to advance to his first career quarterfinal. Murray plays his 10th quarterfinal this season against Janko Tipsarevic. The Serb advanced to his fourth quarterfinal this season, beating Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 7-6 (3). Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6 (7). Ivanovic, Zvonareva thru In Austria, top-seeded Ana Ivanovic and No. 2 Vera Zvonareva eased into the Generali Ladies quarterfinals with straight-sets wins on Thursday. Ivanovic downed Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-4, 6-2, while Zvonareva beat Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-2, 6-0. Ivanovic will play seventh-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-1. Fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova defeated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-4, 7-6 (7) to set up a quarterfinal match against No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska. Unseeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine advanced beating Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Bondarenko's next meets Marion Bartoli, who beat Petra Kvitova 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-3. Dementieva, Mauresmo win In Luxembourg, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva beat Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinal of the Fortis Championships. The top-seeded Russian will play former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo in Friday's quarterfinal. The French veteran swept past Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 6-1. In the only other second-round match remaining, seventh-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain defeated Catalina Castano of Colombia 6-2, 4-6, 7
