MUNICH: Marin Cilic of Croatia, last year's runner-up, advanced to the quarterfinals of the BMW Open Thursday by beating Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (7). Cilic fired eight aces and lost only seven points behind his first serve while breaking Zeballos' serve three times. The third-seeded Cilic is the highest seeded player left in the last eight. He has reached the quarterfinals in Munich for the fourth time in four tries. Seventh-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia rallied to beat German qualifier Julian Reister 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1. Davydenko won the tournament in 2004. Cilic and Davydenko, a former No. 3 in the world, will play each other in the quarterfinals. Another former Munich champion, Philipp Kohlschreiber, won an all-German match against “lucky loser” Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 6-3. In his second quarterfinal of the year, Kohlschreiber will face Radek Stepanek, who outlasted German wild card Dustin Brown 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-3 despite squandering a 5-2 lead in the second set. Fifth-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany edged Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (1) to set up a quarterfinal showdown with Bulgarian teenager Grigor Dimitrov, who advanced Wednesday. In another quarterfinal Friday, Philipp Petzschner of Germany plays Potito Starace of Italy. Verdasaco, Simon thru In Portugal, second-seeded Fernando Verdasco survived a late fight-back by Portugal's Frederico Gil to win 6-1, 7-6 (5) to reach his first quarterfinals in more than two months at the Estoril Open Thursday. Fourth-seeded Gilles Simon of France defeated Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 a third straight time, and fifth-seeded Milos Raonic advanced with a convincing 6-3, 6-3 victory over Portuguese wild card Joao Sousa. Seventh-seeded South African Kevin Anderson beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 6-2. The top three seeds in the women's competition exited in the quarterfinals. Top-seeded Alisa Kleybanova of Russia lost 6-4, 6-2 against Germany's Kristina Barrois, Monica Niculescu of Romania rallied to overcome second-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain upset third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5. Devvarman wins In Serbia, Somdev Devvarman of India beat third-seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (8) Thursday in the second round of Serbia Open. The match lasted for 3 hours, 14 minutes. Devvarman will face seventh-seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who beat Mischa Zverev from Germany 6-2, 6-0. Italy's Filippo Volandri also reached the quarterfinals by defeating Illya Marchenko from Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Second-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia will face Marcel Granollers from Spain. Errani, Vinci win In Spain, Roberta Vinci of Italy was one win away from reaching her third successive Barcelona Open final after dispatching Virginie Razzano of France 6-4, 6-1 Thursday. The sixth-seeded Vinci will next face either Polona Hercog of Slovenia or Laura Pous-Tio of Spain. The fifth-seeded Sara Errani beat Alberta Brianti 6-2, 6-3. On Friday, Errani will play Lucie Hradecka after the Prague player beat Spanish qualifier Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-4, 6-4, winning the last six games.
