Sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and eighth seeded Dutch Robin Haase entered the quarterfinals of the Aircel Chennai Open ATP tennis tournament with contrasting wins over their rivals here on Thursday.
Tipsarevic, world ranked 49, halted the run of giant killing qualifier Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia, beating him 6-2 7-6 (3) in 82 minutes, while 23-year old Haase got the better of another qualifier Yuichi Sugita of Japan 4-6 6-3 6-4.
In the match between Tipserevic and Kudryavtsev, the Serbian was at his prime from the word go and never hesitated with his on-court movements.
Tipserevic showed variety in his game and came up with winners with effective ground strokes and deep returns. His powerful serves also helped his cause and, in fact, served seven of the eight aces in the second set which went on serve before the tie break.
Kudryavtsev remained cool throughout the second set, holding on to his serve but lacked the required experience in the tie break.
In the tie break, Tipserevic rose to a 4-1 lead, mainly riding on to his opponent's unforced errors and then yielded two more points.
But the manner in which Kudryavstev collected two points from Tipservic's service games with perfect execution of ground strokes looked as though the Russian was making a match of it but Tipserevic sent down an ace before winning two more points to wrap up the set set and the match.
On the other hand, in the match between Haase and Sugita, the former was made to work harder by his fighting Japanese opponent.
Haase was hesitant to play upfront initially, which Sugita made good use of in the first two sets.
However, a rushing Haase's successfully return of a Sugita drop shot at 3-3 in the decider was one of the highlight of the match.
During the later stages of the match, Haase was more clinical in his conversion of break points, winning four of the six chances that came his way.
World number 180 Sugita, however, converted only three of the eight opportunities he had.
Later in the day in a long-drawn second round match, unseeded Kei Nishikori of Japan made a remarkable comeback to beat hard-hitting Alejandro Falla, ranked 105, of Colombia in a baseline exhibition tie that went in to the decider.
Nishikori, who was sensing victory leading 5-2 in the third set, eventually won the encounter 4-6 6-3 6-2 in 128 minutes and will play Tipserevic of Serbia in the quarterfinals.
Nishikori, ranked 98, had earlier ousted defending Champion Marin Celic in three sets in the first round on Monday.
Tha Japanese pulled of a coup and left Falla clueless in both the sets, especially in the third. Nishikori, who never looked tired throughout the match, raised his game by several notches from the second set by changing his strategy.
The decider was intensely fought and Nishikori seemed to be oozing in confidence as he broke Falla in the first and third games to lead 3-0.
Meanwhile in the doubes event, Croat pair of Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig defeated Thai brothers Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana 6-2 6-4 to enter the quarterfinals.