Karlovic powers into Nottingham quarters

NOTTINGHAM, England, June 18 (UPI) -- Ivo Karlovic survived a pair of tiebreakers Wednesday in advancing to the quarterfinals of the Slazenger Open tennis tournament in England.

Karlovic, the tournament's defending champion, stretched his Nottingham winning streak to seven matches with a tough 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (16-14) win over Sam Querrey. Karlovic's powerful serve was working well, as he had 27 aces in the match.

Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco breezed past Bobby Reynolds, 6-2, 6-3, in his second-round match but lower seeded players had to scramble to make Thursday's quarterfinals.

No. 5-seeded Gilles Simons got by Samuel Groth, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 6-4, eighth-seeded Gael Monfils beat Julien Benneteau, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 7-seeded Andreas Seppi saved a match point before escaping Eduardo Schwank with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) win. Another second-round match saw Marin Cilic beat Alex Bogdanovic, 6-4, 6-4.

Top-seeded Radek Stepanek withdrew because of a rib injury, giving Vincent Spadea a walkover into the quarterfinals.

Verdasco is to play Simon while Karlovic goes against Seppi, Monfils meets Spadea and Thomas Johansson faces Cilic in the quarterfinals Thursday.

Johansson was given a walkover into the quarters after sixth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov walked off the court during a doubles match and was disqualified from the singles draw also.