Roger Federer reached the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors by beating Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday. Fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic beat France's Florent Serra 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (1) to also advance. In the first round, fourth-seeded Marin Cilic beat Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-4, 6-4 to keep alive his chances of qualifying for the ATP Tour finals in London. The 21-year-old Croat , a wild-card entry, likely needs to win the Swiss Indoors and do well at the Paris Masters next week to make the eight-player lineup at London. He is currently 12th. Third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez also is in finals contention at 10th on the list. In other first-round action, Stanislas Wawrinka rallied to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Jeremy Chardy toughed out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-4 victory over seventh seed James Blake from the US. Richard Gasquet of France defeated Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 7-6 (3), 6-4. Verdasco through Fourth seed Fernando Verdasco advanced to the second round of the Valencia Open Wednesday after Spanish compatriot Oscar Hernandez retired with back trouble. A dominant Verdasco was leading 6-1, 0-1 when Hernandez called it a day. World number eight Verdasco is one of six players at the Spanish indoor hardcourt tournament chasing the two remaining spots at the season-ending World Tour Finals in London. Verdasco will play Janko Tipsarevic in the second round in Valencia after the Serb defeated Victor Hanescu 6-4, 6-3. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's hopes of making the cut for London suffered a setback when a left wrist injury forced the third seed to retire from his first-round match. He was trailing Mikhail Youzhny 6-7, 6-0, 3-0. Tsonga's compatriot Gilles Simon, who also eyeing place in the Tour Finals, battled past Czech Tomas Berdych in the second round 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Gael Monfils, another Frenchman, had his hopes of a place in London squashed by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the Spaniard winning 6-2, 7
