Berdych, Almagro through to quarterfinals in Sweden

BASTAD, Sweden, July 11 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Tomas Berdych rolled to an easy win Thursday that put him in the quarterfinals of the Skistar Swedish Open.

Berdych, sixth in the world rankings, had a first-round bye, making Thursday's match his first appearance in the tournament. He responded with a 6-3, 6-0 rout of Martin Alund.

Berdych seemed to have a little trouble in the first set, losing his serve twice, but he lost just 12 points in the second-set shutout.

Second-seeded Nicolas Almagro, like Berdych also playing Thursday for the first time, dropped the first set but then sailed through a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 decision over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Almagro took only half of the points serving in the first set but lost his serve just once the rest of the way.

Fernando Verdasco, the No. 8-seed, got past Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 7-5 behind five breaks. Thiemo de Bakker capped the second round with a very close 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) upset of sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki.

Berdych takes on de Bakker in the quarterfinals Friday while Almagro is to play Verdasco. Earlier second-round results pit third-seeded Juan Monaco against No. 5-seeed Grigor Dimitrov and Albert Ramos versus Carlos Berlocq, in a battle of unseeded players.