All seeds came through their matches at the China Open on Wednesday as defending champion Marcos Baghdatis and fourth seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic set up a mouthwatering quarterfinal clash.

Chile's second seed Fernando Gonzalez, who blitzed countryman Paul Capdeville 2-0 in just 51 minutes, will take on South Korea's sixth seed Lee Hyung-Taik in the second quarterfinal of the bottom half.

Fernando Gonzalez [Photo:Osports.cn]

The South Korean, now 39th ranked in the world after his stunning run at the U.S. Open, met some real resistance in the first set before scrambling through Bjorn Phau from Germany 7-6(4), 6-1 on Wednesday.

Lee never hit the top gear in the opening set as he allowed his opponent four break points but luckily saved them all.

The 31-year-old finally found his groundstrokes back in the second set to sail through with three breaks.

While the 27-year-old Gonzalez, who has just ended a four-match losing streak since the Wimbledon after beating Austrian Alexander Peya here on Tuesday, did not have to raise his game much above the ordinary to thrash Capdeville 6-1, 6-2.

Gonzalez powered five aces against just one from his fellow Chilean and also won an uncharacteristic 79 percent on his second serve.

A quarterfinalist here last year, Ljubicic earned his second easy win after needing only 64 minutes to beat Serb Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-1 to match his record last year.

Ivan Ljubicic [Photo:Osports.cn]

The big server did not power a single ace but created seven break points and converted on five of them while Troicki never took advantage of the three break points he produced.

"I hope the quarterfinal against Baghdatis will be a turning point. It is good if he suffers a little bit today," joked Ljubicic, who lost all three encounters against Baghdatis in career.

But Baghdatis, the Cypriot who won his first ever ATP career title here last year, also had a much easier time of it seeing off Serb Boris Pashanski 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 17 minutes.

The 22-year-old Cypriot converted on four out of five break points throughout the match and fired seven aces against just one from the Serb.

Marcos Baghdatis [Photo:Sportsphoto.cn]

"He (Ljubicic) is a great player. It won't be easy to win the game. I will still work on tomorrow, keep talking with my coach, and find the solution to win the game," said Baghdatis, whose latest win over Ljubicic was from this season's Croatian Open final where he beat Ljubicic 2-1.

In a first-round match, third seed Tommy Robredo from Spain made short work of German Denis Gremelmayr with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory.

After breaking in the first and third games for a solid 4-0 lead, the world number eleven dominated the game and never looked back en route to a 6-2 first set win in 42 minutes.

Tommy Robredo [Photo:Osports.cn]

The German started to find his range early in the next set, holding serve for a 3-all tie, only for the Spaniard to convert on the first break point in the seventh game to take upper hand. Robredo sealed the victory at 6-4 with a service winner.

The 25-year-old Barcelona resident is not in good shape recently after compiling a career-best season last year by finishing in top 10 for the first time with a personal-high 49 match wins. He also qualified for his first tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last year.

However, it is the first time for the Spaniard to visit Beijing, the capital of China.

"I have been to many countries, but I feel the Chinese are the most enthusiastic audience I have ever seen. People like to watch me play and give me applauds, it makes me feel like a star," said a beaming Robredo. "I will try my best to play each match well and even win the tournament."

In the last match at the main court, Chinese doubles players Yu Xinyuan/Zeng Shaoxuan lost to German pair of Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-1 in the first round, making the US$475,000 ATP tournament an exclusive arena for foreigners.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2007)