By Karolos Grohmann
BERLIN, July 16 - German Misha Zverev cruised past
top seed and world number seven Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2 in
Stuttgart on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals.
Simon, still in search of his first tournament win of the
season, had no answer to the left-hander's versatile game on
Stuttgart's clay.
Zverev, who had also beaten the Frenchman in Rome earlier
this year in their only previous encounter, broke Simon in the
third game before serving out the first set.
Using drop shots and backhand slices to stretch Simon,
Zverev, son of former Soviet Davis Cup player Alexander, broke
twice in the second set as his opponent struggled to find
consistency with his groundstrokes.
"It was an almost identical match as in Rome. I know how he
plays and I tried to play slowly and force him to attack,"
Zverev said. "He made some easy mistakes. Everything worked
perfectly today."
The 21-year-old next faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Simon became the second seeded player to tumble on Thursday
after fifth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber slumped to a surprise 6-2
6-4 defeat against Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot.
The 127th-ranked Pole grabbed a break in the first game and
added another in the seventh to clinch the first set before
breaking the world number 26 again early in the second to serve
out the match after 70 minutes.
Second seed, Russian Nikolay Davydenko, the world number 11,
had little trouble against German Michael Berrer, ranked 109
places lower, sweeping past him 6-3 6-3 after only 66 minutes.
He will now meet 22-year-old Italian Fabio Fognini who
advanced after Paul-Henri Mathieu, trailing 6-4 4-1, retired
with an injury.
(Editing by Nigel Hunt)