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Davydenko grinds into Munich quarter-finals

Nikolay Davydenko has struggled for form this season © Getty Images

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Nikolay Davydenko reached his first ATP Tour quarter-final since January with a confidence-boosting victory at the BMW Open in Munich.

The former world No. 3, who has slipped to No. 40 in the world rankings following a wrist injury last year, has struggled for form this season and has won less than 40% of his matches since his first-round exit at the Australian Open.

After losing the opening set to German qualifier Julian Reister, it looked like it would be back to the drawing board for the Russian, but Davydenko showed the steel that has seen him beat the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the past to turn around the result and seal a 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 victory.

It is only the third time this season that Davydenko has managed to string back-to-back wins together, and he will now face a distinctly tougher opponent in the last eight, where third seed Marin Cilic awaits following the Croatian's 6-3 7-6(7) win over Horacio Zeballos.

Also through to the quarter-finals on Thursday are Radek Stepanek, Florian Mayer and Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Meanwhile, Milos Raonic's season continued to gather pace as he reached his first quarter-final on clay with victory over home hopeful Joao Sousa at the Estoril Open. The Canadian, who started the year ranked outside the top 150, has risen to No. 26 in the world rankings, and his meteoric rise continued with a 6-3 6-3 victory on Thursday.

Raonic will now meet Gilles Simon, who raced past Argentina's Carlos Berlocq 6-2 6-1. Also through to the last eight is South Africa's Kevin Anderson, who defeated Victor Hanescu in straight sets, and second seed Fernando Verdasco, who advanced 6-1 7-6(5) against Frederico Gil.

At the Serbia Open in Belgrade, third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez won more points than his opponent, but still failed to reach the quarter-finals after falling in three sets to Somdev Devvarman 7-6(6) 2-6 7-6(8). Garcia-Lopez broke his opponent on six occasions, but was ultimately undone by his failure to hold on at the crucial moments, and two pivotal tiebreaks decided the outcome of the match. Devvarman's last-eight opponent will be home favourite Janko Tipsarevic, who saw off Germany's Mischa Zverev 6-2 6-0.

Also through to the last eight are Filippo Volandri and Marcel Granollers, the latter of whom defeated second seed Viktor Troicki 6-2 6-3.

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