Novak Djokovic cruised into the Qatar ExxonMobil Open quarter-finals on Wednesday when the World No. 1 beat Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-2 in 69 minutes. Djokovic, who also reached the last eight in 2015, extended his winning streak to 19 matches against left-handed opponents. He is bidding to capture his 60th tour-level title this week.
Djokovic goes onto face eighth seed Leonardo Mayer, who dropped just two of his first service points (26 of 28) in a 6-2, 6-4 win over Pablo Andujar. Djokovic beat Mayer in straight sets at the 2014 Australian Open.
Seventh seed Jeremy Chardy struck 12 aces and lost just five of his service points in beating fellow Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4. He now plays Illya Marchenko, who beat Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-2.
Later Wednesday, second seed Rafael Nadal defeated Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2.
Results from the Qatar Open Men’s Singles Round 2 matches on Wednesday 2-Rafa Nadal (Spain) beat Robin Haase (Netherlands) 6-3 6-2 Andrey Kuznetsov (Russia) beat Ricardas Berankis (Lithuania) 7-6(6) 6-1 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 6-2 6-2 Illya Marchenko (Ukraine) beat Teymuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-4 6-2 8-Leonardo Mayer (Argentina) beat Pablo Andujar (Spain) 6-2 6-4 7-Jeremy Chardy (France) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-2 6-4
Radwanska advances in Shenzehn
In Shenzhen, China, top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland sailed into the quarterfinals of the Shenzhen Open but three other seeded players were knocked out in the second round Wednesday.
Radwanska, who won last year’s WTA finals, scored a 6-1, 7-5 win over Chinese player Shuai Zhang.
Radwanska won all three break points in the first set. The players traded two breaks in the second set before Radwanska broke in the final game to take the victory.
Third-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania retired out when trailing 7-5, 3-2 against Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.
In other upsets, fourth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania lost 6-1, 6-4 to Timea Babos of Hungary while seventh-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan lost 6-0, 6-4 to Czech player Katerina Siniakova.
Pospisil knocked out in Chennai Open 1st round by Bedene
Vasek Pospisil of Canada was the only seed not to reach the Chennai Open second round when he lost to Aljaz Bedene of Britain 7-5, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday.
Pospisil, seeded seventh, beat Bedene just over two months ago indoors in Valencia, but the closely ranked pair virtually went point for point outdoors in Chennai. Bedene earned the only break.
He was runner-up here last year as a Slovene, and returns as a Brit after becoming a citizen last March.
The other two seeds in action, No. 5 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and No. 6 Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, won three-setters.
Russian teen Andrey Rublev, a wild card, beat local qualifier Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for a shot at two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka. Also the top seed, Wawrinka is aiming for a fourth Chennai title.
Second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa also learned of his next opponent, 248th-ranked wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan, who beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-0 for his second career win on the ATP Tour.(AGENCIES)
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/sports/news/861166
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