Bucharest, Romania – Two-time Bucharest champion Gilles Simon was an easy second-round winner Thursday at the $522,500 BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy tennis event.
The top-seeded world No. 12 Simon subdued Israeli veteran Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-2 on the red clay at BNR Arenas.
Simon, who titled here back-to-back in 2007 and 2008, will face seventh-seeded Pole Lukasz Kubot in Friday's quarterfinals. Kubot handled Romanian wild card Markus Copil 6-3, 6-3 on Day 4.
Upsets came when German Matthias Bachinger knocked out fourth-seeded Serb Viktor Troicki 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) and Italian Fabio Fognini foiled fifth- seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
Sixth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi avoided an upset by drilling German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2, 6-3.
Friday's other quarters will pit Seppi against his fellow Italian Fognini, Hungarian qualifier Attila Balazs versus Belgian Xavier Malisse and Matthias Bachinger against fellow German Daniel Brands.
The 2012 Bucharest titlist will pocket $95,000.
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