Karlovic advances in Vienna

Ivo Karlovic advanced to his 10th quarterfinal of the season by defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 7-5 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Wednesday. The seventh-seeded Croat avoided break points in the second-round match and conceded just nine points in his 11 service games. Karlovic will next play Ernests Gulbis. The 117th-ranked Latvian, who was on a five-match losing streak coming to this tournament, upset third-seeded

John Isner 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to reach his third quarterfinal of the year. In a match dominated by strong serving, Gulbis hit 23 aces against the American’s 16. Each set was decided by one break though both players had to fight off six break points. In first-round play, second-seeded

Kevin Anderson of South Africa dropped just seven points on serve while defeating the last Austrian left in the tournament, Andreas Haider-Maurer, 6-4, 7-5. It’s the first time in 33 years that no Austrian player has made it past the opening round of their home event.

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus upset fourth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia 7-6 (7), 6-3 Wednesday to advance to the Stockholm Open quarterfinals. Baghdatis next plays eighth-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who defeated John Millman of Australia 7-5, 6-3.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia ousted second-seeded Lucie Safarova from the Kremlin Cup 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 on Wednesday, leaving the Czech player vulnerable to being left out of the season-ending WTA finals. Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta, the U.S. Open champion, secured her spot in Singapore next week by defeating Russia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-4. The Italian then withdrew from the Moscow tournament because of a right foot injury. Germany’s Angelique Kerber also was guaranteed a place in the tour finals thanks to Safarova’s second-round loss.