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VIENNA, Austria -- Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat Tomas Zib
6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the BA-CA
Tennis Trophy. In his 13th quarterfinal of the season, Djokovic will play
seventh-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over
Jurgen Melzer. "I certainly was not at my best today, so I am happy that I was
good enough to win," Djokovic said. "The first two rounds are
always difficult. But I have to raise my game to a higher level
against Chela." Djokovic had seven aces and never was in trouble in his own
service games. The third-ranked Serb broke Zib in the fifth game of both sets
and closed out the match with an ace. The 16th-ranked Chela reached the quarterfinals for the 10th
time this season. Melzer trailed 3-1 before winning the first set, and then broke
Chela in the first game of the second. But Chela dominated the
Austrian after that with strong forehands from the baseline. Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and Feliciano Lopez of Spain
also advanced. Wawrinka rallied to beat David Nalbandian of Argentina 5-7, 6-3,
6-1, and Lopez defeated Stefan Koubek of Austria 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Nalbandian, who had not played for more than a month since
losing to David Ferrer at the U.S. Open, led 5-3 but struggled to
close out the first set. In the second, Wawrinka broke twice and used his third set point
to level the match. Wawrinka had three more breaks in the deciding
set to wrap up the victory. Wawrinka, who also reached the quarterfinals in Vienna last year
after beating Djokovic, will next play Lopez, who won the event in
2004. Koubek missed two break points in the first game of the third
set, and was then broken while trailing 5-4 as Lopez converted his
fifth match point.
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