Defending champion Robin Soderling finally ended his winless run against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in another scrap to reach the ABN Amro quarterfinals on Thursday.
The top-seeded Soderling had lost his three previous matches against Kohlschreiber, but prevailed this time after more than two hours 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (7).
“It was close,” Soderling said. “I have played him before and I always have problems with his game. He is a tough player to play against.”
That set up a rematch of the 2010 final with sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, the 2007 champ who overpowered Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker 6-4, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych sweated out a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win over Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov in two hours.
Berdych fired 16 aces and won two of seven break chances. He next meets Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Two-time finalist Ivan Ljubicic downed French qualifier Benoit Paire 6-0, 6-4 to set up a last-eight match against unseeded Marcos Baghdatis.
Baghdatis had a harder time overcoming Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (3), 6-3 than he did dispatching Australian Open finalist Andy Murray 6-4, 6-1 the previous evening.
“This match was a tricky one,” Baghdatis said. “What I did well today was take my chances in the tiebreak and in the second set, the same thing.”
