Simona Halep of Romania ousted defending champion Roberta Vinci from the Barcelona Open Wednesday, and sixth-seeded Petra Cetkovska also lost in the second round. Halep broke five times to secure a 6-1, 6-3 victory in just over an hour against the fourth-seeded Vinci, who had also won the outdoor clay tournament in 2009. It was the Italian's second loss in 17 matches here. Halep will play Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals after the Spanish player beat Cetkovska 6-2, 6-4. Seventh-seeded Sara Errani of Italy won the first 11 games en route to beating Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-0, 6-2. Sorana Cirstea of Romania advanced when eighth-seeded Polona Hercog of Slovenia retired due to dizziness after losing the first set 6-4. Cipolla, Andreev advance In Morocco, Flavio Cipolla defeated second-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-1 Wednesday and Igor Andreev rallied to beat No. 4 Denis Istomin 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 as both reached the Grand Prix Hassan II quarterfinals. Cipolla did not face a single break point while breaking Dolgopolov's serve twice in the first set. The Italian then quickly broke Dolgopolov twice at the start of the second set. Cipolla will next face Benoit Paire of France, who saved 12 of 14 break points en route to a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 win over Matthias Bachinger of Germany. Andreev saved eight of nine break points and broke Istomin four times. He will next play Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who comfortably beat Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-4, 6-2. Sweeting shows form American Ryan Sweeting launched his title defense at the US Men's Clay Court Championship Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Brazilian qualifier Ricardo Mello. Sweeting, trailing 5-6 in the second set, saved two set points against his serve as he held on to force the tie-breaker, sealing the victory on his fourth match point. In other matches at the Houston tournament, Tatsuma Ito won an all-Japanese clash with Go Soeda 6-4, 7-5, the first tour-level meeting between the two compatriots. Italy's Paolo Lorenzi set up a meeting with third-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Wayne Odesnik. Qualifier Horacio Zeballos booked a marquee second-round clash with America's Davis Cup hero John Isner via a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Romanian Adrian Unger. Mardy Fish, ranked ninth in the world, one spot in front of Isner, is the top seed in the $442,500 event. In the second round Fish will face American Michael Russell, a Houston resident who rallied from a set and a break down for a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Kanepi in 3rd round In Copenhagen, fifth-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia held on to beat Timea Babos of Hungary 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) Wednesday and reach the third round of the e-Boks Open. Mona Barthel of Germany also advanced, beating Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-3, 6-2, while Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia moved into the second round by defeating Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4.
