Top men's seeds into quarter-finals in Madrid Masters

Top seed Novak Djorkovic needed just 68 minutes to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters tennis tournament with a straightforward 6-2, 6-2 win against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.

Reigning champion Andy Murray moved into the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Giles Simon after a brief pause in the second net as a spectator needed medical attention in the stands, here on Thursday, reports Xinhua.

Home favourite Rafael Nadal overcame a slow start before fighting back to what turned out to be a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win over American Sam Querrey in just over an hour and 10 minutes.

However, his fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer failed to make it through as the number 9 seed lost 6-7 (8), 5-7 to the number 8 seed, Czech Tomas Berdych.

Number six seed Kai Nishikori is also into the last 8 after his 6-4, 7-5 victory over French number 10 seed, Richard Gasquet.

Simona Haleb is the only seeded player in the semi-finals after a three set victory over fellow Romanian, Irina Begu. Haleb lost the second set to love before recovering to run out a 6-3, 0-6, 6-1 winner.

Qualifier Louisa Chirico, who is ranked 130th in the world, is also a shock semi-finalist after her 7-6 (1), 6-2 triumph over Australian, Daria Gavrilova.

--IANS

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