Malisse sets up last-eight clash with Youzhny

The quarter final match between Youzhny and Malisse on Friday promises to be one of the best matches as both of them are known for their power packed play and forehands.

Youzhny escaped from the jaws of defeat with a 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 win over Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France and Serra scored a memorable victory over Belgian Kristof Vliegen 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3).

In the doubles, the Indian duo of Mustafa Ghouse and Karan Rastogi played well but went down fighting against the higher rated Marin Cilic of Croatia and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 4-6, 6-7 (1).

Serra will take on the winner of the match between former champion Carlos Moya of Spain and qualifier Alexandre Kudryavtsev later tonight in the quarter finals.

Malisse, who has the rare feat of having won a double crown in the event last year but went out of action for the next six months due to a wrist injury, was stretched to extra points in the first set, but he was never broken literally all through the match.

The first set went on serve before the Belgian closed it out in the tie-breaker for the vital lead.

The defending champion was confident personified in the second set. Leading three-one, Malisse showed sympathy to Melzer in the sixth game allowing the latter to win a game on his serve beofre sealing it with the last three games in-a-row.

In an outside court doubles match, American Rajeev Ram and his partner Harel Levy of Israel caused a major upset ousting fourth seeded duo of Tomas Cibulec (Cez) and Lovro Zovko (Cro) 6-3, 4-6 (12-10).