Baghdatis returns to winning ways

Los Angeles: Third-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis had low expectations for this week's LA Open but gave himself a welcome boost by beating American wildcard Ryan Sweeting 3-6 6-2 6-3 in the second round on Wednesday.

Former world junior champion Baghdatis, a hardcourt specialist, had lost his previous three matches on grass and was bidding for his first win since the second round of the French Open in May.

"It's been two months and that's a long time [without winning]," the 25-year-old told reporters after reaching his fifth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year.

"I came to LA knowing I wasn't going to be playing my best tennis. I came with this mentality of fighting for every match. I felt really bad on court and it's good to win a match when you feel bad. The positive attitude is there, which is very important, looking forward to the next one," he said.

Baghdatis, who clinched his fourth ATP title in Sydney in January, fired down 11 aces on the stadium court at the LA Tennis Centre before sealing victory in one hour, 50 minutes.

He will next meet sixth-seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who scraped through a first-set tiebreak 11-9 before beating Indian qualifier Somdev Devvarman 7-6 6-2.

Schuettler in last eight

In the first match of the day, German veteran Rainer Schuettler became the first player to reach the last eight by battling past American Robby Ginepri 6-3 3-6 6-4.

The oldest player in the draw at 34, Schuettler converted three of his seven breakpoint opportunities to set up a quarter-final meeting with second seed Sam Querrey.

Big-serving American Querrey, winner of last year's LA Open, survived an erratic display over the first two sets to beat South African qualifier Kevin Anderson 7-6 4-6 6-0 in Wednesday's late match.

World number 20 Querrey came from 2-4 down in the opening set to take the tiebreak 10-8 and shrugged off the loss of the second to stay on track for his fourth ATP title of the year.

"It was tough out there and he's got such a big serve," the 22-year-old Querrey said after improving his record to 3-0 against his 80th-ranked opponent. "I got lucky," he said.

"I just focused a little harder on my service games, got a few more returns and really turned it around there."

Results

Los Angeles International second round (prefix denotes seeding): 2-Sam Querrey (US) beat Kevin Anderson (South Africa) 7-6(8) 4-6 6-0. 3-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) beat Ryan Sweeting (US) 3-6 6-2 6-3. 6-Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) leads Somdev Devvarman (India) 7-6(9) 6-2. Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat Robby Ginepri (US) 6-3 3-6 6-4.