Top-seeded Federer advances to Istanbul Open quarterfinals
ISTANBUL (AP) Top-seeded Roger Federer gave a demonstration of his service skills as he beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the inaugural Istanbul Open clay-court tournament.
Federer never faced a break point and won 93 percent of his first serves. He also served nine aces while Nieminen had none.
Federer will next play Daniel Gimeno-Traver, who upset sixth-seeded Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-3.
Also, fourth-seeded Santiago Giraldo beat wild card entry Andrey Rublev 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight.
Giraldo struggled at times against Rublev, with both players dropping their serve three times. Although Rublev had more aces - 7 compared to 3 - Giraldo won more of his first-service points.
He next plays eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, who took less than one hour to beat Jurgen Melzer 6-0, 6-2.
Gimeno-Traver dropped serve once, but otherwise was hardly troubled, using five aces and breaking his opponent's serve four times.
