Wawrinka Lopez and Verdasco in Gstaad quarterfinals

Written by: Staff on 29th July 2011

Wawrinka Lopez and Verdasco in Gstaad quarterfinals

Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland serves the ball to Peter Luczak of Australia during their second round match at the Suisse Open tennis tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, 28 July 2011. Wawrinka won 6-3 and 7-5. EPA/PETER SCHNEIDER |

Three Spanish players are in the quarterfinals of the Crédit Agricole Open in Gstaad. The man with the new and very short hair cut Fernando Verdasco took out Frederico Gil of Portugal in straight sets 6-3 6-2.

The World No. 20 Verdasco will meet Julien Benneteau of France in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The Spaniard lost in the semi-final in Hamburg last week to Nicolas Almagro.

Verdasco’s best mate Feliciano Lopez beat Dainel Gimeno-Traver also from Spain 6-3 6-4 in 72 minutes. Lopez won an ATP Challenger Tour title in Bogota last week. Lopez will face the winner of yet another Spaniard Nicolas Almagro and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the next round.

The third Spanish player to reach the quarterfinals in Gstaad is Marcel Granollers. The number eight seed beat Russian Igor Andreev in two easy sets 6-1 6-3. The match was suspended on Wednesday due to rain and the score was 6-1 4-3 to Granollers.

Marcel Granollers will see second seed Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka on the other side of the net in the quarterfinals. Wawrinka who is currently ranked number seventeen in the world saw off Australian qualifier Peter Luczak 6-3 7-5. The Swiss broke Luczak’s serve three times.

Wawrinka is looking to win his first title in Gstaad this year. He got close in 2005 when he reached the final and lost to Gaston Gaudio. Stan has one title under his belt this year. In January he defeated 10sballs.com’s Xavier Malisse at the Aircel Chennai Open.

Victor Hanescu of Romania and Rogier Wassen of The Netherlands are the only team through to the semi-final of the doubles event at the Crédit Agricole Open in Gstaad. Hanescu and Wassen won over the Spanish team of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Marc Lopez 7-5 7-5.

The number four seeds Johan Brunstrom of Sweden and Adil Shamasdin of Canada won their first round against Swiss wildcards George Bastl and Alexander Sadecky 7-5 6-3.

Top seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek won in three sets against Michail Elgin and Denis Istomin 7-6 (2) 3-6 10-6. Cermak and Polasek will take on Santiago Giraldo and Joao Souza in the next round.

The schedule for tomorrow is:

SCHEDULE – FRIDAY, 29 JULY, 2011

CENTER COURT start 10:30 am

[1] N Almagro (ESP) vs J Nieminen (FIN) 23 – To Be Finished

A Haider-Maurer (AUT) vs [3] M Youzhny (RUS)

Not Before 12:30 PM

[8] M Granollers (ESP) vs [2] S Wawrinka (SUI)

Not Before 3:00 PM

[4] F Verdasco (ESP) vs J Benneteau (FRA)

[1] N Almagro (ESP) or J Nieminen (FIN) vs [5] F Lopez (ESP)

COURT 1 start 10:30 am [

1] F Cermak (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) vs S Giraldo (COL) / J Souza (BRA)