Tennis

Montanes, Starace in Morocco quarters

Published Apr. 7, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Fabio Fognini of Italy rallied to defeat Blaz Kavcic 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 Thursday and reach the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix Hassan II.

Fognini joined top-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes, Potito Starace of Italy and Gilles Simon of France in the last eight.

Kavcic won more points than Fognini and had four opportunities to win the match, but couldn't close it out.

The 90th-ranked Slovenian wasted four match points at 5-3 in the second set and served for victory again at 5-4 in the deciding set. The seventh-seeded Fognini needed only one match point to complete the comeback.

Fognini will play Montanes, who defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-1, 6-4.

The third-seeded Simon dismissed Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-3, 6-4 and will face Starace, who beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-4, 6-3.

Simon converted his only two break points to win his second-round match. The Frenchman was playing his first match since a neck injury last month forced him to retire from a quarterfinal match against Roger Federer in Miami.

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