Casablanca, Morocco (SportsNetwork.com) - Third seed Benoit Paire and fourth-seeded Marcel Granollers were among Thursday's second-round winners at the $585,000 Moroccan Open tennis event.
The Frenchman Paire snuck past 2007 Casablanca runner-up Albert Montanes of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, while Granollers got past fellow Spaniard and 2012 runner-up Albert Ramos 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) on the red clay at Complexe Al Amal.
A mild second-round upset came when Spanish qualifier Roberto Carballes Baena knocked out fifth-seeded Portuguese Joao Sousa 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
Eighth-seeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez avoided an upset by overcoming Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-2, 7-5 on Day 4.
Also in the round of 16, Russian lucky loser Andrey Kuznetsov topped Czech Jiri Vesely 6-2, 3-1, retired, and Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta came from behind to best Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Nedovyesov 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6-3). Kuznetsov replaced second-seeded French star Gael Monfils in the draw.
Friday's quarterfinals will pit Paire against Garcia-Lopez, Granollers versus Carreno Busta, sixth-seeded Argentine Federico Delbonis against Romanian and 2010 Casablanca runner-up Victor Hanescu, and Carballes Baena versus Kuznetsov. Half of the quarterfinalists hail from the clay court mecca of Spain.
The 2014 Casablanca winner will claim $105,000.
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