Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals of the Dubai Championships with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Marin Cilic on Thursday, while second seed Andy Murray pulled out with a virus. Briton Murray, who has been feeling unwell since last month's Australian Open, withdrew before his quarterfinal against France's Richard Gasquet. “My temperature's up, sore throat, sore head, my body's aching a little bit, so I need to take some time off,” the Scot told reporters. Third seed Gilles Simon ended fellow Frenchman Fabrice Santoro's run with a 7-6, 6-1 win, while fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer defeated Russian Igor Andreev 7-5, 6-1. Fish rolls into quarters In Miami, top seed Mardy Fish needed only 68 minutes to defeat Vince Spadea 6-4, 6-1 and reach the quarterfinals of the Delray Beach International on Thursday. Fish, a finalist in 2003, landed only 51 percent of his first serves but managed to defeat his American compatriot for the fourth time in five career meetings. Fish will play Frenchman Florent Serra for a place in the semifinals of the $500,000 hardcourt tournament. Serra, seeded sixth, ousted Germany's Mischa Zverev 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. On Wednesday, Christophe Rochus of Belgium upset second-seeded American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-1 at the Delray Beach International on Wednesday. Austrian Stefan Koubek took out eighth-seeded Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-4, 6-3 in a late match. Five of the eight seeds have been eliminated: Querrey, Lu, third-seeded Ernests Gulbis, fifth-seeded Steve Darcis and fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn. Almagro thru, Moya loses In Mexico, defending champion Nicolas Almagro endured more than 2-1/2 hours on clay to reach the Mexican Open quarterfinals, but two-time winner Carlos Moya lost in the second round on Wednesday. Almagro hit 18 aces to Potito Starace's three but went serve for serve with the Italian before finishing off a 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-3 win. Almagro made the decisive break for 4-2 in the third set. In his fourth successive quarterfinals in Acapulco, Almagro will play Spanish countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Not so fortunate was compatriot and eighth-seeded Moya, who lost to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 7-5. Mayer will meet Gael Monfils, who outlasted Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-1. Two other Spanish seeds also departed; Gimeno-Traver ousted No. 6 Albert Montanes 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), and Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina removed No. 7 Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-3. However, Tommy Robredo of Spain routed Kevin Kim of the US 6-2, 6-0 in 44 minutes. In the women's draw, Flavia Pennetta of Italy cruised past Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier 6-1, 6-3. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain was beaten by Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, while fifth-seeded Gisela Dulko was upset by Maret Ani of Estonia 7-6 (6), 6-3. Iveta Benesova survived Klara Zakopalova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), in an all-Czech match, but two more seeds exited in the second round.
