No. 4 Mathieu, No. 5 Stepanek advance at Open de Moselle in France

The remaining second round matches at the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, were completed with both seeded players advancing. The seeded winners on Thursday included No. 4 Paul-Henri Mathieu (pictured) and No. 7 Radek Stepanek.

No. 4 seed Mathieu beat French qualifier Romain Jouan, 6-3, 6-3, making him the highest seeded player remaining in the tournament. Mathieu smashed 13 aces compared to Jouan’s one ace, while breaking serve three times without facing any break points. Currently ranked No. 440 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Jouan was fresh off an upset victory over Agustin Calleri, which was his first career ATP level victory. Mathieu will do battle in the quarterfinals against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who earlier this year advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon, which was highlighted by a victory over Andy Roddick in the second round. Tipsarevic leads the all time series 2-1, winning most recently in three sets in the first round at the Masters Series Monte Carlo.

No. 7 seed Stepanek of the Czech Republic was able to disregard Michael Llodra’s 19 aces by breaking serve on three occasions to beat the Frenchman, 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-6(0), in just over two hours. Stepanek chalked up plenty of aces on his own, smashing 12 aces as he was also able to win 79 percent of first serve points. Currently ranked No. 29, the Czech native improves his career series record against Llodra to 4-1. In his four quarterfinal appearances this year, he has not yet lost in that round. He was the runner-up in San Jose, while reaching the semifinals in Memphis, Sydney and at the Masters Series Rome. He will next meet World No. 54 Eduardo Schwank who edged past Romanian Victor Hanescu, 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3, in just over two and a half hours. It will be the Argentina citizen’s fourth quarterfinal appearance of the year. The pair has never played each other on the ATP Tour.

Other winners on Thursday included qualifier Adrian Mannarino, who reached his first career ATP level quarterfinal after beating fellow qualifier Rik de Voest, 6-4, 7-5. Currently owning a No. 181 ranking, Mannarino had never won an ATP level match before playing in Metz. Frenchman Marc Gicquel held off wild card entrant Nicolas Mahut, 6-3, 7-6(4), in just over an hour and a half to advance. He will next face Mannarino for a spot in the semifinals.

Following up with a match that was in progress at the time of yesterday’s post, Carlos Moya went onto shock No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic, 6-3, 7-6(4). Moya, a former World No. 1 and Roland Garros champion, withstood 18 aces from the 6’10” serving machine from Croatia, as he lost only six points on his serve throughout the match. Moya next plays No. 5 seed Dmitry Tursunov for a spot in the semifinals. Moya owns a 1-0 series edge against Tursunov, winning in straight sets at the 2004 Wimbledon Championships.