seeded home favorite Kevin Anderson and sixth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France avoided the curse of the seeded players at the SA Tennis Open to reach the quarterfinals Thursday. Anderson stayed on course for a first career ATP title with a straight-sets win over Dudi Sela. He was followed into the last eight by Mannarino, the only other seeded player left in the tournament, after the Frenchman's 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 win over Denis Gremelmayr of Germany. Mannarino and Gremelmayr both struggled in their night match at Montecasino, sharing 109 unforced errors before the 67th-ranked Mannarino finished strongest and won with an ace on his second match point. Mannarino is also hunting a first ATP title. South African No. 1 Anderson needed just over an hour for his 6-2, 6-4 win. He hit 13 aces to just one from the Israeli in a clinical performance for his first win in three meetings with Sela. Anderson will meet unseeded Slovak Karol Beck, who eventually prevailed 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 in a topsy-turvy match with Japan's Go Soeda. It will be the first ATP quarterfinal since 2005 for the No. 100-ranked Beck. Frank Dancevic, who dumped out Lopez, is playing South African wild card Fritz Wolmarans in Thursday's late match, with the winner to meet Mannarino in the quarters. Giraldo, Starace thru In Chile, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia reached his third quarterfinals this year when he beat Igor Andreev of Russia 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-2 at the Movistar Open Thursday. After missing four break points in the second set, the eighth-seeded Giraldo dominated the last set to finish off Andreev in just under 2½ hours. Fifth-seeded Potito Starace defeated Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-4, 6-1 for a fifth straight time. Ljubicic advances In Croatia, three-time finalist Ivan Ljubicic easily reached the Zagreb Indoors quarterfinals by defeating Daniel Brands of Germany 6-2, 6-3 in the second round Thursday. Ljubicic won the title in front of home fans in 2006, and made the final in 2007 and ‘08. Next up for the second is countryman Ivan Dodig, who beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3 to avenge a defeat to the same player in the same round a year ago. American qualifier Alex Bogomolov advanced to his first ATP quarterfinals in 19 months by overcoming seventh-seeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-1, 6-2. Bogomolov will meet third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain Friday. Fourth-seeded Richard Gasquet benefited when fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement withdrew only minutes before their match because of a shoulder injury. China, Japan win In Thailand, China beat Thailand 2-1 Thursday to stay at the top of Pool A with a 2-0 record in the Fed Cup's Asia/Oceania Group I. Japan, led by an in-form Ayumi Morita, is 2-0 in Pool B following a victory over South Korea Thursday.
