BEIJING, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Top Five players Andy Murray and Robin Soderling battled their way into the quarterfinals of the China Open with wins Thursday.
Murray, the world No. 4 and the tournament's No. 2 seed, handed Albert Montanes a 7-5, 6-3 loss behind nine aces and four service breaks. Murray lost his serve once in each set but won over Montanes' serve twice in each set.
Soderling, ranked fifth in the world and seeded third, needed nearly two hours to get by Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Soderling had 22 aces, lost his serve just once in the match and won 91 percent (50-of-55) of the points when he landed his first serve.
No. 8 seeded David Ferrer outlasted Lu Yen-Hsun 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 and will go against Soderling in Friday's quarterfinals.
Murray will play Ivan Ljubicic, who was a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) winner over Alexandr Dolgopolov in his match Thursday.
The other quarterfinal pairings, which were set Wednesday, have top-seeded Novak Djokovic meeting Gilles Simon and fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko going against John Isner.
UPI
