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Dubai: Two more seeds departed, even as another three advanced into the men's quarterfinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
Great Britain's Andy Murray led the parade of seeds into the last eight with Spain's Rafael Nadal, Russian Nikolay Davydenko and David Ferrer of Spain, the three seeds to book their places in the next stage of the tournament.
And among the casualties were eighth seed Tomas Berdych, falling to Feliciano Lopez in straight sets, while seventh-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet caved in to Russian Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-4 in a surprising result.
Murray, who knocked off four-time defending champion and world No 1 Roger Federer in their first round match on Monday night, looked a shadow of himself as he struggled against windy conditions to win 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) against Fernando Verdasco of Spain.
Nadal came in later and demolished qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia in straight sets 6-4, 6-0 to set a possible meeting with sixth seed Andy Roddick, who was to play against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu later in the evening.
Lopez, a losing finalist to Federer in 2004, was composed in his 6-2, 7-5 win against eighth seed Berdych of the Czech Republic. Fourth seed Ferrer also advanced with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over Olivier Rochus and Andreev forced his way to a 6-3, 6-4 result against Gasquet.
Key contest
But it was the centre court action between Murray and Verdasco that took prominence. In the opening set, Murray surged ahead with a break in the sixth game to go 4-2 clear and then went on to win the set 6-3 in 39 minutes.
He kept up the tempo in the second while breaking his opponent in the sixth game to go clear 4-2, after which he comfortably won the set 6-3.
"I was struggling against the wind and at one point towards the end, I was only looking at putting the ball back inside," Murray conceded.
In the third, Murray led 4-2, thanks to a break in the sixth. But the plucky Spaniard immediately held serve to make it 4-4 and push the encounter into a deciding tie-breaker.
"I was a bit nervous and I was struggling to find my shots," Murray added.
Results
Singles: Andy Murray bt Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5); Rafael Nadal bt Mikhail Ledovskikh 6-4, 6-0; Feliciano Lopez bt Tomas Berdych 6-2, 7-5; Nikolay Davydenko bt Jan Hernych 6-1, 6-4; David Ferrer bt Olivier Rochus 3-6, 7-5, 6-1; Richard Gasquet vs Igor Andreev bt Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4;
Doubles: Rohan Bopanna/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi bt Igor Andreev/Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 6-4; Philipp Kohlschreiber/Mikhail Youzhny bt Mariusz Fyrstenberg/Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-4; Richard Gasquet/Fabrice Santoro vs David Ferrer/Fernando Verdasco 6-7 (5), 6-2, 17-15; Simon Aspelin/Julian Knowle bt Paul Hanley/Leander Paes 6-1, 6-3.
Order of play
Centre Court (Start at 2 pm) [4] David Ferrer vs Feliciano Lopez; Andy Murray vs [5] Nikolay Davydenko. (Not before 7 pm) [6] Andy Roddick OR Paul-Henri Mathieu vs [2] Rafael Nadal; [7] Richard Gasquet OR Igor Andreev vs Fabrice Santoro OR [3] Novak Djokovic.
Court 1 (Start at 3:30 pm) [3] Martin Damm/Pavel Vizner vs Philipp Kohlschreiber/Mikhail Youzhny; (Not before 5 pm) [1] Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic vs [WC] Rohan Bopanna/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi; (Not before 8:30 pm) Feliciano Lopez/Rafael Nadal vs Jordan Kerr/Rogier Wassen OR [4] Mahesh Bhupathi/Mark Knowles (after suitable rest).
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