Top seed Andy Murray made the perfect start to his Wimbledon build-up with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Italy's Andreas Seppi in the second round at Queen's on Wednesday. The Scot will play Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 winner over Gilles Muller, in the last 16. While Murray had it easy, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt had to dig deep for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Frederico Gil that kept alive his bid for a record fifth Queen's title. Nicolas Mahut produced the first major surprise as the Frenchman defeated fifth seed Marin Cilic 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-4) in the second round. Mahut faces Ivo Karlovic next after the big-serving Croat hit 33 aces to beat France's Julien Benneteau 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (4-7), 6-2. Mikhail Youzhny, the Russian 14th seed knocked out former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) victory. Youzhny plays Gilles Simon, the French third seed, who defeated Bulgarian teenager Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5). Marat Safin was forced to pull out with a back injury just hours before his match against Belgian qualifier Xavier Malisse. Safin was replaced in the draw by South Africa's Rik de Voest, who lost 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (10-8) to Malisse. Malisse plays former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, who eliminated France's Paul-Henri Mathieu, seeded 11th, 6-4, 6-4. Gael Monfils withdrew with a wrist injury, handing Belgium's Steve Darcis, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Alberto Martin, a walkover into the last eight. Tsonga, Berdych upset Tommy Haas beat fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (3) on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open, capping a fine day for Germans and a disastrous one for seeded players. In an earlier upset, Mischa Zverev rallied to defeat fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8). The other two seeded players in action, No. 6 Dmitry Tursunov and No. 8 Rainer Schuettler, also tumbled out. Benjamin Becker of Germany beat Schuettler 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to make his first quarterfinal of the season. Schuettler was the only German to lose Wednesday, and the tournament could potentially have seven local players in the last eight. Tursunov lost to another German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, after wasting a 4-1 lead in the second set and 5-0 advantage in the tiebreaker before going down 6-4, 7-6 (8). Kohlschreiber won six straight points to gain a match point. The Russian saved it but then lost the next two points to end his error-filled performance. Earlier, “lucky loser” Lukas Lacko advanced to the second round by beating Harel Levy 7-6 (6), 6-2. Sania shines Sania Mirza's impressive start to her grass court season gathered momentum on Wednesday when the Indian star swept British number one Anne Keothavong aside to advance to the last 16 of the WTA tournament here. Sania demonstrated that she is fully recovered from a career-threatening wrist injury as she raced through the first set and although Keothavong put up greater resistance in the second, she saw out the match 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). It was not such a good day for Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasagurn, who was upset by 20-year-old British wildcard Naomi Cavaday in three sets. Cavaday beat last year's Wimbledon quarter-finalist 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-4 in a match featuring nine breaks of serve.
