Cilic powers way into BMW Open quarters

MUNICH, Germany, April 28 (UPI) -- Third-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, fueled by eight aces, posted a straight-set quarterfinal victory Thursday at the BMW Open tennis tournament in Germany.

Cilic, the highest remaining player in the draw in Munich, got past Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 7-6 (9-7). Cilic faced only one break point and won 72 percent of the points on serve but the match still took nearly two hours before Cilic finished off the long tiebreaker.

No. 5-seeded Florian Mayer also was on the court nearly two hours in a straight-set win, defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). The match was to have been played Wednesday but was postponed because of rain.

Other second-round winners Thursday were seventh-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who topped Julian Reister 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1; No. 8-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber, who swept past Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 6-3 without dropping serve; and Radek Stepanek, who won just three more points than Dustin Brown in a 267-point marathon that ended with a 7-6 (8-6), 5-7 (5-7), 6-3 win for Stepanek.

Friday's quarterfinal pairings have Philipp Petzschner playing Potito Starace and Mayer facing Grigor Dimitrov in the top half of the draw while Davydenko goes against Cilic and Kohlschreiber battles Stepanek in the lower half.