Casablanca, Morocco (SportsNetwork.com) - No. 2 seed Martin Klizan advanced, while last year's runner-up Marcel Granollers exited the draw Wednesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II tennis event.
The Slovakian Klizan outlasted big-hitting German Dustin Brown 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), while Bosnian Damir Dzumhur was leading the fourth-seeded Granollers 3-0 in the first set when the Spaniard retired on the clay courts at Complexe Al Amal.
Granollers lost to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in last year's all-Spanish final.
In other second-round action, sixth-seeded Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer doused two-time Casablanca champion Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-3 and wild card and former top-10 performer Nicolas Almagro of Spain got past Argentine Carlos Berlocq 7-5, 7-5.
Klizan will meet Almagro and Haider-Maurer will take on Dzumhur in Friday's quarterfinals.
On Thursday, the top-seeded and defending champion Garcia-Lopez will face Moroccan wild card Lamine Ouahab in a second-round affair.
The 2015 Casablanca champion will earn $87,000.
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