Kubot ousts defending champ Granollers in Switzerland

Gstaad, Switzerland (4E Sports) – Poland’s Lukasz Kubot knocked out rusty defending champion Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-4, 6-2, Thursday to advance to his third quarterfinal of the season at the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad.

Kubot finished off world No. 20 Granollers in one hour and 37 minutes to arrange a showdown with world No. 61 Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated German qualifier Dustin Brown 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 35 minutes.

Top seed Janko Tipsarevic also advanced to the next phase after surviving a tough challenge from Austrian qualifier Martin Fischer, 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-3, in two hours and 37 minutes.

The 245th-ranked Fischer, playing just his 18th tour-level match, went up a set but the world No. 8 rallied to clinch the second set via tiebreak.

World No. 212 Jan Hernych advanced to his first ATP World Tour quarterfinal in three-and-a-half years after beating No. 39 Santiago Giraldo, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

In Hamburg, Germany, Juan Monaco reached the quarterfinal for the first time in seven appearances at the bet-at-home Open-German Tennis Championships 2012 after beating

Spaniard Daniel Munoz-De La Nava, 7-6(4), 6-3.

Monaco will next play France’s Jeremy Chardy, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over German wild card Julian Reister.

Top seed Spaniard Nicolas Almagro rallied from a break down in the second set to complete a 6-4, 6-3 win over 2009 champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. He will next face sixth-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Meanwhile, Australian Matthew Ebden unleashed 20 aces in a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 win over American James Blake at the BB&T Atlanta Open.

Ebden, who won 88 per cent of his first serve points, will face the winner of the Mardy Fish-Gilles Muller encounter in the quarterfinal.

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