No. 5 Tursunov, Tipsarevic advance to Quarterfinals at Open de Moselle in France

California based Russian Dmitry Tursunov and energetic Serbian Janko Tipsarevic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, after convincing second round victories on Wednesday. While those two players have already won two matches at this tournament, No. 7 seed Radek Stepanek and Frenchman Michael Llodra were among the final first round winners on Day Three.

In one of the quickest straight set matches on the ATP Tour this season, No. 5 seed Tursunov destroyed clay court specialist Jose Acasuso of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, in 49 minutes. Tursunov fired 10 aces compared to Acasuso’s five. The Russian lost only three points on his first serve and four points on his second serve. The 25-year-old was able to break serve on all four chances he got. He improves to 30-19 this season, which includes winning the singles title in Sydney and finishing as runner-up at the Indianapolis event. Currently No. 47 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Acasuso drops to 26-23 on the year.

Tipsarevic, who shocked the tennis world at Wimbledon this summer by defeating Andy Roddick in the second round, has been extremely quiet since then, winning only two matches since his fourth round performance in London. One of those victories occurred this week against wild card entrant Jeremy Chardy in the first round. This afternoon he got some confidence back, as he defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-4, 6-4, in 76 minutes. Both players hammered nine aces, but the Serbian was able to break serve on three occasions, while Gulbis could only break serve on one of three opportunities. Currently ranked No. 43 in the most recent rankings, Tipsarevic improves to 23-17 on the year. On Friday he will face either No. 4 Paul-Henri Mathieu or qualifier Romain Jouan, in hopes of reaching his first semifinal since the Moscow event in 2007. With the loss, Gulbis drops to 21-19 on the year.

Stepanek, a finalist in San Jose and quarterfinalist in Sydney, Memphis and at the Masters Series Rome, advanced in convincing fashion with a, 6-3, 6-2, win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in 72 minutes. The former World No. 8 smacked seven aces, while breaking serve on three of six chances. Next up for Stepanek is local hopeful Llodra, who won a three set thriller over Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

In a serving classic by both competitors, Llodra smashed 20 aces and only four double faults compared to Lopez’s 17 aces and five doubles faults, en route to a, 7-6(11), 6-7(6), 6-3, victory. The singles winner earlier this year in Adelaide and Rotterdam, Llodra was able to secure the only break of serve in the final set of the match. Llodra is currently ranked No. 36 and improves his singles record to 23-17. Lopez, ranked one spot behind the Frenchman at No. 37, falls to 16-22 on the year.

At the time of this post, Carlos Moya, a former World No. 1 and 1998 Roland Garros champion, is up 6-3, 3-3 against No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic in a second round clash. With the match being only 47 minutes old, the 6’10” Croatian already has smashed 15 aces.