LONDON - Andy Murray eased past Fernando Verdasco at the Aegon Championships Thursday but an expected quarterfinal showdown with the man who beat him at Wimbledon last year was scuppered by Luxembourg left-hander Gilles Muller. Top seed Murray, bidding for a record-equaling fourth title at the prestigious Queen's Club, fended off some typically ferocious hitting by Spaniard Verdasco to win 7-5, 6-4 and delight a large Centre Court crowd. Earlier defending champion Grigor Dimitrov, who stunned Briton Murray in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year, became the latest high-profile seed to fall, losing 6-4, 7-6(5) to Muller. Bulgarian Dimitrov, the sixth seed, struggled to deal with Muller's dangerous serve as he joined French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka and 14-time major winner Rafa Nadal on the casualty list of a tournament boasting increased prize money and ranking points this year. Nishikori to meet Janowicz Second-seeded Kei Nishikori advanced to the Gerry Weber Open quarterfinals by beating German wild card Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-1 Thursday. Nishikori said he hoped to make the most of the grass-court tournament in preparation for Wimbledon, which starts in 11 days. "These two matches (played already) will help me get more confidence," Nishikori said. "I hope to play many more." He next plays Poland's Jerzy Janowicz, who defeated Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Andreas Seppi of Italy upset the fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3. Seppi had six match points altogether before eventually prevailing in 2 hours, 7 minutes.
Mladenovic causes another upset Kristina Mladenovic, the cosmopolitan Frenchwoman with two Grand Slam doubles titles and a liking for grass, produced her second successive upset at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Birmingham Thursday. The 22-year-old, who lives in Switzerland and has Serbian parents, produced another nicely-judged tactical performance to beat Barbora Strycova, the tenth-seeded Czech who was last year's runner-up, by 7-6(7-4), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. It followed her even better victory on Wednesday against Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard, in which Mladenovic reduced the high profile Canadian to "absolute frustration". She now has a chance of rising above her career-highest world No. 36 ranking, particularly if she can manage a quarterfinal upset against the top-seeded Simona Halep. The 23-year-old Romanian was fluent and impressively dominant in a high-speed 6-1, 6-3 win over Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic, finishing off the job in only 50 minutes. Meanwhile two well-known names went out — Jelena Jankovic, a former world No. 1, and Svetlana Kuznetsova, twice a Grand Slam champion. Jankovic was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Angelique Kerber, the fourth-seeded German, and Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-4 by Carla Suarez Navarro, the third-seeded Spaniard. — Agencies
