Grigor Dimitrov reached his second consecutive quarterfinal of the new season with a straight-sets win over Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas at the Sydney International Wednesday. The Bulgarian world No. 28, looking for more matches under new coach Franco Davin, ousted Cuevas 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 and will next play Ukraine's Aleksandr Dolgopolov in the quarters. The Bulgarian will face Dolgopolov in the quarters after the Ukrainian knocked out American qualifier Alexander Sarkissian 7-6 (8/6), 6-2. Australia's top seed Bernard Tomic claimed a quarterfinal spot in the tournament for a fourth straight year with a 6-2, 6-2 romp over compatriot Jordan Thompson in just 48 minutes in the evening match. The 2013 champion will face Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili in the quarters. In other matches Wednesday, Luxembourg's Gilles Muller was leading second seed Dominic Thiem 7-6 (7/2), 2-2 when the young Austrian retired with blisters on his right foot. Muller will face Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the quarters. Sixth seed Chardy ousted Australian James Duckworth 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, while French qualifier Nicolas Mahut downed fifth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Other Wednesday winners were Gabashvili, 6-3, 6-3 over Argentina's Federico Delbonis, and Serbian third seed Viktor Troicki, 6-1, 6-4 over Spaniard Tommy Robredo. In the women's event, Romania's Simona Halep fought off big-serving Czech Karolina Pliskova to reach the semifinals. Halep had early breaks in both sets only to be pulled back, before the tournament top seed closed out for a 6-4, 7-5 win over the Czech fifth seed in one hour and 38 minutes in blistering heat. Halep will face former world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last four after the Russian fought back from 1-5 down in the opening set to knock out Italian Sara Errani 7-6 (7/1), 6-0. Elsewhere, Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig ended Australia's Samantha Stosur's run, 6-4, 6-4 and will face eighth seed Belinda Bencic in the semis after the Swiss beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 in an evening match. Ferrer makes last 8 David Ferrer put last week's Doha disappointment behind him with a comfortable straight-set win in his opening match at the Auckland Classic Wednesday. The 6-2, 6-4 victory over Australian qualifier Matthew Barton put the top seed and four-time champion into the quarterfinals to face Czech Lukas Rosol, a surprise winner over fifth seed Benoit Paire of France. The top four seeds all had first-round byes, and all won their opening matches in the second round. Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was untroubled as he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4 but it was a different story for the third and fourth seeds, John Isner and South African Kevin Anderson. Isner took the first set in a tie-break against fellow American Sam Querrey, and then dropped the before fighting back to take the match 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4. Anderson was also tested in tie-breaks before overcoming Robin Haase of the Netherlands 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5). Roberto Bautista Agust reached the last eight with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) win over American Donald Young, while Fabio Fognini took just 47 minutes to beat Thiemo de Bakker 6-1, 6-1. Injured Kyrgios pulls out Nick Kyrgios suffered an Australian Open scare on Wednesday when he pulled out of his opening match at the Kooyong Classic with a right foot injury. The 20-year-old Australian handed David Goffin victory as he retired with the score at 6-7 (5/7), 3-2 to the Belgian. Spain's Pablo Carreno-Busta earlier beat the 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 6-4, without dropping serve.
