Stockholm, Sweden – Third seed Nicolas Almagro and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt posted second-round victories Wednesday at the Stockholm Open tennis tournament.
The Spanish Almagro got past Romanian qualifier Marius Copil 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), while the wild card Aussie Hewitt upended eighth-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-4 on the indoor courts at The Royal Lawn Tennis Club of Stockholm. Almagro and Hewitt will battle in Friday's quarterfinals.
Nieminen was last year's Stockholm runner-up to Gael Monfils, who was a first- round loser on Tuesday. Nieminen also reached finals here in 2001 and 2006.
Also on Wednesday, Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis ousted fourth-seeded German Florian Mayer 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 and sixth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny drilled Swedish wild card Patrik Rosenholm 6-0, 6-2. Mayer was a Stockholm finalist in 2010.
In some more second-round action on Thursday, top-seeded French star Jo- Wilfried Tsonga will tangle with Japan's Go Soeda and second-seeded Czech slugger Tomas Berdych will face Estonian Jurgen Zopp.
The 2012 Stockholm champ will earn $113,795.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.