Britain’s Greg Rusedski, Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and Cyril Saulnier of France advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup on Wednesday.
Rusedski ran his winning streak to seven matches with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Karol Beck of Slovakia.
Kiefer beat qualifier Glenn Weiner of the United States 6-4, 7-5; and Saulnier eliminated Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
Number three Mardy Fish, the only seed to play on Wednesday, faced Gilles Elseneer in a night match in the tournament being played at UCLA.
Rusedski, who won last week’s Hall of Fame Championships at Newport, Rhode Island, had upset seventh-seeded Taylor Dent in the first round.
In the third set on Wednesday, Rusedski had to fight off three break points to pull even at 4-4. Then, after both held serve to six-all, Rusedski got off to a 3-0 lead on a double fault by Beck and two aces to take control of the tiebreaker.
”Once I got into the tiebreaker I felt confident because I’ve been playing those well,” Rusedski said after setting up a meeting with Kiefer. ”It’s been a long time since I’ve won seven [matches] in a row. That makes me feel good about myself.”
Rusedski last won seven straight matches in the summer of 2002.
Kiefer (27), who after a couple of injury-marred seasons is still trying to rebuild a game that took him to number four in the rankings, gave himself a mediocre grade for his second-round win.
”I won, it doesn’t matter how,” he said. ”My body played good; my game was so-so. But when it was important, I made my points.” — Sapa-AP