Begu leads march of seeded women into quarterfinals in Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Second-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania reached the quarterfinals of the Rio Open on Wednesday, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-2, 6-4.
Several other seeded players also advanced to the quarterfinals at the WTA-ATP event, South America's biggest clay-court tournament.
No. 5 Johanna Larsson of Sweden defeated local hope Gabriela Ce 7-6 (4), 6-4, Germany's Dinah Pfizenmaier beat No. 4 Madison Brengle 7-5, 0-6, 7-5 and Julia Glushko of Israel defeated Grace Min of the United States 6-3, 6-1.
In first-round matches, No. 6 Anna Schmiedlova beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-3, 6-0 and Polona Hercog defeated An-Sophie Mestach 6-3, 6-4.
On the men's side, Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer defeated third-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.
Unseeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also made the last eight, beating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 7-6 (4).
No. 2 David Ferrer was leading 7-6 (8), 2-0 when Thiemo De Bakker retired from their second-round match, while Joao Souza beat Blaz Rola 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-4.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal faces Pablo Carreno Busta on Thursday.