Klizan advances

Sixth-seeded Martin Klizan advanced to the quarterfinals of the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, with a 6-4, 7-6 (7) victory over Canadian Vasek Pospisil on Thursday. The 35th-ranked Slovakian, playing at the indoor hardcourt tournament for the first time, needed nearly two hours to win a match that featured just one break of serve. Klizan will next face either Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert or fourth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Top-seeded Stan Wawrinka and No. 2 Gilles Simon are opening their campaign in the evening session with second-round matches. Wawrinka, the French Open champion, faces a tricky test against Dustin Brown, who beat Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon this year.

Milos Raonic used his powerful serve to blast past Russian opponent Evgeny Donskoy and into the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Open on Thursday. Raonic, the second seed in St. Petersburg, fired in 13 aces and held serve throughout as he won 6-4, 6-4, knocking out the last Russian player left in the draw. Raonic’s quarterfinal opponent will be Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo, seeded fifth, who beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus earlier in the day, 7-6 (5), 6-1. Fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain also reached the quarterfinals, winning a close match against Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia reached the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan-Pacific Open in Tokyo on Thursday by beating sixth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-4, 6-4. Cibulkova improved her record to 3-0 against Suarez Navarro, who had not won a match in seven tournaments before beating Kateryna Bondarenko here in the first round. Seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska also reached the final eight by beating Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-1 and will play Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who eliminated the last remaining Japanese player by defeating Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-4. The 11th-ranked Pliskova served 10 aces and rallied from 4-1 down in the second set to clinch the match.