Mischa Zverev of Germany upset top-seeded Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Mercedes Cup. Zverev also beat Simon at the Rome Masters in May and now leads the Frenchman 2-0. He is in his fifth quarterfinal of the year. In another upset, qualifier Lukasz Kubot of Poland beat fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-4. Kubot will next face Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, who beat Simon Greul 6-3, 6-4. Second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko eased into the quarterfinals by beating Michael Berrer of Germany 6-3, 6-3. Davydenko will play Fabio Fognini of Italy, who advanced when Paul-Henri Mathieu of France retired because of dizzy spells while trailing 6-4, 4-1. Jeremy Chardy of France also advanced, rallying to defeat Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. Chardy will next play Zverev. In another match, “lucky loser” Alexandre Sidorenko of France will face fourth-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania. Verdasco in quarters In Sweden, top-seeded Fernando Verdasco saved a match point late in the final set before beating Daniel Koellerer 6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals at the Swedish Open on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, No. 5 Nicolas Almagro of Spain and unseeded Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden also reached the last eight in the 62nd edition of the clay-court tournament. Verdasco will play either Victor Crivoli of Romania or Juan Monaco of Argentina in Friday's quarterfinals. Melzer defeated Daniel-Gimeno Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-2 to line up a quarterfinal with Vinciguerra, who ousted qualifier Guillermo Canas of Argentina 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Almagro rallied past Potito Starace of Italy 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 and will play Robin Soderling of Sweden in the last eight. Schnyder, Errani thru In Italy, former champions Patty Schnyder and Sara Errani advanced to the Palermo Open quarterfinals with straight-sets wins on Thursday. Second-seeded Schnyder of Switzerland beat Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-2, 6-2 in a second-round match. Defending champ Errani pleased the home crowd by getting past Patricia Mayr of Austria 7-6 (6), 6-1. In Friday's quarterfinals, Schnyder will meet Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, who stopped Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus 7-6 (5), 6-3. Errani faces Yaroslava Shvedova after the Kazak topped Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-3, 6-2. The other quarterfinals pit top-seeded Flavia Pennetta against No. 7 Aravane Rezai of France, and Tathiana Garbin of Italy against Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
