TENNIS in DEPTH.

Verdasco, the 15th seed, had lost all of his previous 14 meetings with his Spanish compatriot. But the 28-year-old upset his Davis Cup team-mate 6-3 3-6 7-5 to book a quarter-final against Tomas Berdych. The Czech sixth seed eased through earlier on Thursday, winning 6-1 6-1 against Gael Monfils, seeded 12th. Nadal had previously won twice in Madrid and the six-time French Open champion was in good form having won a record eighth Monte Carlo title and a seventh Barcelona crown last month. The 25-year-old star took the third-round match to a deciding set but Verdasco, playing in his home city, prevailed to disrupt Nadal’s preparations for this year’s French Open, which begins later this month. Berdych had earlier ended Monfils’ comeback from injury. The Frenchman was playing for the first time since picking up an abdominal muscle problem in March and failed to earn a break point.

There was another surprise in the men’s draw as Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov knocked out fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Dolgopolov, seeded 16th, won 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-2) to book a last-eight match with Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, the 10th seed disposing of Croatian Marin Cilic 6-2 6-4.

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Tomic prevailed 4-6 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-2 7-5 after four hours and 11 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena. Juan Martin del Potro powered back from a set down to beat Adrian Mannarino, while world number two Rafael Nadal beat Alex Kuznetsov 6-4 6-1 6-1. Tomas Berdych, Mardy Fish and Nicolas Almagro also triumphed.

Ten-time grand slam champion Nadal wrapped up victory in just one hour and 46 minutes, with six breaks of his opponent’s service. He also conceded only two break-point opportunities against the 167th-ranked American throughout the three sets. The Spanish second seed, who played with his right knee bandaged, will face German Tommy Haas in the second round.

Tomic, who won the AAMI Kooyong Classic build-up event, described his match against the Spaniard as “torture” after what was only his third five-set match. But the 19-year-old dug deep in the sweltering heat to take the match to a decider, finally breaking the weary Spaniard in the 11th game of the final set to serve for the match. Tomic will play Sam Querrey in the second round after the American beat wild card Kenny de Schepper in straight sets. Meanwhile, Del Potro powered back from a set down to beat Adrian Mannarino to maintain his record of never having lost an opening-round match in seven visits to Melbourne. The 2009 US Open champion, seeded 11th, made a poor start but later showed signs of top form to win 2-6 6-1 7-5 6-4 and seal a meeting with Blaz Kavcic.

Elsewhere, 18th seed Feliciano Lopez overcame Leonardo Mayer and next plays Flavio Cipolla of Italy, a five-set winner against former world number three Nikolay Davydenko. Another upset saw Ivo Karlovic hit 24 aces en route to a 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-3 victory over 31st seed Jurgen Melzer.

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Nadal survived a three-set, three-tiebreaker match against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco on Thursday, advancing to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (9) victory that kept him on court for 3 hours, 38 minutes. Nadal arrived hoping to get a lot of on-court time this week. He missed a month after hurting his left foot at Wimbledon, where he reached the finals and lost to Novak Djokovic. He had a setback before his first match in Cincinnati. Nadal burned the tips of his index and middle fingers on his right hand when he touched a hot plate at a local restaurant. The left-handed Nadal had the fingers bandaged again on Thursday for protection. Playing on a sunny, mid-80s afternoon, the second-ranked Nadal finished it by converting his fifth match point. It was only the second best-of-three matches in Nadal’s career that featured three tiebreakers. The second-ranked Nadal improved to 12-0 in his career against the unseeded Verdasco. “You enjoy always a good match,” Verdasco said. “But when you lose in this way, of course it’s not easy to lose. You have it so close. Tennis is like that.” In the quarterfinals, Nadal will play seventh-seeded Mardy Fish, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5. No. 4 Andy Murray also advanced with a 6-2, 7-5 win over American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr.

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The 25-year-old Granollers capped a dream week, which also saw him defeat second seed Stanislas Wawrinka and third seed Mikhail Youzhny, to become the seventh different Spanish winner on the ATP World Tour this season. He earned 250 South African Airways 2011 ATP Ranking points and €72,600 in prize money. ”Last week was bad for me because I felt a lot of pain in my arm, which I had felt since Wimbledon,” revealed Granollers. “I went home and rested for five days without any practice, and I came here on Sunday and started to feel better and better. Now I have won the tournament and so it’s amazing. ”It’s very important for me because I won my first tournament in 2008, which was a little unexpected, and three years later I won here. So there is a lot of work behind today and I feel amazing.”

In the fifth all-Spanish final on the ATP World Tour this year, and the first in Gstaad since 1997, Granollers dominate the first set, surrendering only four points on serve and converting one of his five break point chances to take the early lead.

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Second seed Jurgen Melzer was surprised 6-3 2-6 6-4 by eighth seed Fernando Verdasco, who will next take on fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro after the third seed beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/3).

Top seed Gael Monfils suffered a final-set collapse as he was knocked out of the German Open at the semi-final stage by fellow Frenchman and fifth seed Gilles Simon. World number seven Monfils started the match in Hamburg as the clear favourite but was broken twice in the first set and despite levelling matters he suffered a calamitous decider, winning just four points as Simon ran out a 6-4 3-6 6-0 winner. The result earned Simon a semi-final meeting with fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny after the Russian was forced to work hard before squeezing through against Croatia’s Marin Cilic 4-6 6-3 7-6 (8/6).

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Gael Monfils reached the quarter-finals of the German Open in Hamburg after taking one hour and 22 minutes to dispatch Czech veteran Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-4. Monfils will face an all-French clash with Gilles Simon in the last eight after the fifth seed battled to a tough 7-6 (7/4) 3-6 6-4 win over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in two hours and 19 minutes.

Second seed Jurgen Melzer enjoyed a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over 15th seed Fabio Fognini of Italy, and third seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 7-5. There was disappointment for the local wild cards with Cedrik-Marcel Stebe falling 7-5 6-2 to eighth seed Fernando Verdasco and Tobias Kamke beaten 3-6 6-3 6-2 by 12th seed Marin Cilic.

Julian Reister lost 6-3 6-3 to fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny, but the home fans were given something to cheer when sixth seed Florian Mayer beat Argentina’s Juan Monaco 7-5 7-5 to advance.

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Andy Roddick made the last eight after brushing aside 6ft 8″ South African Kevin Anderson 6-4 6-4 in overcast London. The third seed was tested well by his 16th-seed opponent, raising his game impressively as he prepares for another tilt at the Wimbledon title he craves. Rangy Anderson missed a chance to break early in the second set. And Roddick, with an effective backhand slice, sealed the match clinically as he chases a record fifth title. The American, who has lost in the Wimbledon men’s singles final three times, will play Fernando Verdasco in the Aegon Championships quarter-finals.

Verdasco, the Spanish seventh seed, beat Argentina’s number nine seed David Nalbandian 7-5 6-1 on Thursday. ”I love being here, I love this tournament, I love this whole month over here [in England],” Roddick told BBC Sport. “So I’m trying to make the most of it. I was solid. ”I had a game plan, and I stuck to it. There weren’t going to be many breaks with the way we both serve. That’s grass-court tennis.”

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Frederico Gil overcame Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla 6-3 6-2 on home soil to set up a second round match against second seed Fernando Verdasco at the Estoril Open.

Fifth seed Milos Raonic also eased into the second round with a relatively comfortable 6-4 6-4 win against Igor Andreev of Russia. He will also be joined by Brazilian sixth seed Thomaz Bellucci and eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro who overcame qualifiers Frederik Nielsen 7-5 6-1 and Pedro Sousa 6-2 3-6 6-3 respectively.

French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin did manage to reach the second round, overcoming Marcos Daniel 6-3 6-1. There were also straight-set victories for Pablo Cuevas and Carlos Berlocq as they saw off Spaniards Pere Riba 6-2 6-4 and Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-4 6-3. Alejandro Falla advanced after a back injury forced his opponent Pablo Andujar to retire in the third set with the match tied 4-6 6-1 4-4.

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