World No. 2 Novak Djokovic fought back from a set down to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 at the Dubai championships Thursday, becoming only the second seed to make it through to the last four. The holder's victory restored some luster to a tournament already nursing the early exit of five seeded players and the withdrawal of top-ranked Roger Federer and former US Open champion Andy Roddick. “(It was) a very slow start for me,” said Djokovic, 22, whose win set up a semifinal Friday with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Michael Berrer of Germany 7-6, 6-1. Ljubicic, 30, powered through the first set, dropping only two points on serve and breaking Djokovic twice. The Serb upped his game in the second, hitting a series of superb serves and increasingly moving into the net, though he still had no answer to the Ljubicic serve that regularly topped 210kph. The turning point came at 3-3 when Djokovic saved two break points, the second one after a Ljubicic lob went well wide. Djokovic then converted his first break point of the match as a wild Ljubicic forehand gave the Serb the second set. The 2008 Australian Open champion romped through the final set, running onto a slack drop shot that Ljubicic could only scuff wide to clinch victory. Austrian Juergen Melzer earlier beat sixth seed Marin Cilic 7-6, 7-5 to set up a semifinal with Mikhail Youzhny after the Russian defeated Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4. Cilic was the latest big name casualty after fellow seeds Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon all lost in the opening two rounds. Melzer gained swift revenge for his semifinal defeat by Cilic at the Zagreb Indoors earlier this month. Cilic, 21, was heavy favourite going into the match after winning two tournaments already this year. Chang in quarters In Malaysia, Chang Kai-Chen of Taiwan crushed China's 20th-ranked and third-seeded Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open Thursday. The 19-year-old Taiwanese played fearlessly against an opponent ranked 72 places above her and completed a disastrous week for Chinese players after second-seeded Li Na was knocked out by Germany's Tatjana Malek Monday. Chang took only 75 minutes to set up a quarterfinal date with sixth seed Sybille Bammer of Austria, who earlier trounced Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3, 6-0. Elsewhere, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa reached her first WTA quarterfinal after defeating Malek 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Scheepers, who is based in Houston, Texas, held out to clinch a quarterfinal date with Ayumi Morita of Japan. In other results, seventh-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia defeated wildcard entry Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-4, 7-5 to reach the last eight. She will next face top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia. Verdasco, Venus advance In Mexico, top-seeded Fernando Verdasco and Venus Williams both reached the quarterfinals of the Mexican Open with straight-set wins Wednesday. Spain's Verdasco beat Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-3 while Venus was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi. The second-seeded players in both the men's and women's draw also advanced. Fernando Gonzalez of Chile defeated Victor Hanescu of Romania 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-1, and Agnes Szavay of Hungary beat Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1. Defending champion Williams led 4-0 in the first set, but lost four straight games against the 96th-ranked Kanepi. The American was often forced to the corners of the court by Kanepi. Verdasco will face seventh-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina, who defeated compatriot Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 7-6 (4). Gonzalez will next be up against Eduardo Schwank of Argentina, who beat Simon Greul of Germany 7-6 (4), 6-3. No. 3 David Ferrer of Spain also advanced, beating Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4, 6-1. And another Spaniard, the in-form No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero, also reached the quarters, beating Igor Andreev of Russia 6-4, 6-3. Two-time defending champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain made it to the last eight by edging Richard Gasquet of France 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7). In other women's matches, No. 3-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1, fifth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain defeated Colombian Catalina Castano 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, and Edina Gallovits of Romania upset sixth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Blake wins suspended tie In Florida, seventh-seeded James Blake needed only 40 seconds to close out a rain-delayed 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 first-round victory over fellow American Taylor Dent at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships Wednesday. The match started Tuesday night and dragged past midnight before being suspended by rain with Blake leading 6-1, 3-6, 5-3, 40-40. Blake secured his fourth match point with a backhand passing shot and then hit a service winner to end the match in less than one minute of play. Blake will face 364th-ranked Robin Haase of the Netherlands in the second round. Rain continued to pour on Wednesday, and another eight other matches were postponed.
