Stockholm, Sweden (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seed David Ferrer and rising Canadian star Milos Raonic moved into the quarterfinals at the Stockholm Open tennis tournament.
The French Open runner-up Ferrer dropped the first set before rebounding to beat big-hitting American Jack Sock 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, while the second-seeded Raonic took out 31-year-old qualifier and heavy Swedish crowd favorite Joachim Johansson 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) on the indoor hardcourts at Kungliga Tennishallen. The recent Bangkok titlist and Tokyo runner-up Raonic and the shoulder-injury- plagued Johansson combined for 26 aces, including 16 by the winner.
Meanwhile, Frenchman Kenny De Schepper upended fourth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3, fifth-seeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis handled Dutchman Igor Sijsling 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) and seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov drubbed German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 6-3.
Also, former top-10 star Fernando Verdasco outlasted Finnish fellow tour veteran Jarkko Nieminen, a three-time Stockholm runner-up, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
The quarterfinals will pit Ferrer against his fellow Spaniard Verdasco, Raonic versus sixth-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire, third-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz against Gulbis, and Dimitrov versus De Schepper.
This week's titlist will earn $130,000.
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