Gasquet heads into quarterfinals of Thailand Open

BANGKOK, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Defending champion Richard Gasquet sailed through his second-round match Thursday at the Thailand Open tennis tournament.

Gasquet picked up his seventh ATP title in Bangkok last year and has won twice. He advanced to the Thailand Open quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Lukas Lacko. Gasquet fought off all four of Lacko's break-point chances and won nearly three-quarters of the points on serve.

He also took nearly half (30-of-64) of the points off Lacko's serve and ended up with three breaks in the 67-minute match.

Lu Yen-Hsun posted the only upset on Thursday's schedule, beating eighth-seeded Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2 in a brisk 57 minutes. Rosol had 12 aces but Lu managed the only three breaks of the match.

No 4-seeded Gilles Simon, who lost to Gasquet in last year's tournament final, stopped Bernard Tomic 6-4, 7-5. He took almost 80 percent of the points when serving.

Other second-round results saw third-seeded Milos Raonic survive a three-set challenge from Marinko Matosevic 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4 in more than 2 1/2 hours and fifth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny beat Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 without facing a break point.

Friday's quarterfinals have No. 1-seed Tomas Berdych taking on Lu and Simon going against Igor Sijsling in the top half of the draw. Gasquet plays Youzhny and Raonic meets sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez in the other quarters.