Nadal, Federer advance easily in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer easily slid into the quarterfinals of the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open tennis tournament with straight-set victories Wednesday.

Nadal, the No. 1 seed in Doha, lost seven points over eight service games in a 6-2, 6-2 rout of Denis Gremelmayr. Nadal ended up winning 60 percent of the points in the match.

Federer, the defending champion, was on court 61 minutes in dispatching Grega Zemlja 6-2, 6-3. Federer lost 11 points -- four in the second set -- on serve.

All but one of the eight seeded players advanced to the quarterfinals with wins Wednesday. No. 6-seeded Alex Bogomolov withdrew due to an ankle injury, allowing Albert Ramos to move out of the second round without playing.

No. 3-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got past Flavio Cipolla 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 while fourth-seeded Gael Monfils edged by Benjamin Becker 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 and No. 5 Viktor Troicki beat Matthias Bachinger 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.

Seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny topped Ivo Karlovic 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 and will next face Nadal while No. 8 Andreas Seppi, a 7-5, 6-3 second-round winner over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, draws Federer in the quarterfinals.

The other quarterfinals send Monfils against Troicki and Tsonga against Ramos.