Basel, Switzerland –  Hot Argentine star Juan Martin del Potro highlighted Thursday's second-round winners at the Swiss Indoors tennis event.

Fresh off his title in Vienna last week, the second-seeded del Potro continued his winning ways by handling American comeback kid Brian Baker 7-5, 6-1 on the indoor hardcourts at St. Jakobshalle.

The formidable del Potro has now qualified the prestigious season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Del Potro's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be South African slugger Kevin Anderson, who uncorked 17 aces in sneaking past Aussie Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 in Thursday's nightcap in Basel.

Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny reached the quarterfinals by whipping Aussie Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-1. Youzhny's round-of- eight opponent will be third-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

In some other second-round play, France's Benoit Paire topped Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-4, and another Frenchman, wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu, downed former top-five Russian star Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4. Paire is rewarded with a quarterfinal match against Basel's hometown hero Roger Federer, while Mathieu will face ultra-talented Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who has been nicknamed "Baby Fed."

Federer beat Japan's Kei Nishikori for a second straight and fifth overall Basel title a year ago. The Swiss great also claimed championships here from 2006-08 and was a Swiss Indoors runner-up in 2000, 2001 and 2009.

The 2012 winner of this $1.84 million event will earn $440,000.