Soderling, Del Potro To Square Off In QFs; Cuevas Beats Tsonga

© JLSRobin Soderling worked hard for his second-round win Wednesday.

World No. 5 Robin Soderling earned a confidence-boosting win over Jeremy Chardy at the Estoril Open on Wednesday.

Top seed Soderling, 2-3 overall in his last three ATP World Tour tournaments, recorded a 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-1 victory over Chardy in just under two hours.

Soderling dropped seven points on serve in the first set and just two service points in the deciding set. Chardy led Soderling 4-1 in the second set, squandered two set points at 5-4, 40/15, but kept his nerve in the tie-break when he opened up an early lead.

Soderling is looking to win his fourth ATP World Tour title of the year. He won 18 of his first 19 matches, lifting trophies at Brisbane (d. Roddick), Rotterdam (d. Tsonga) and Marseille (d. Cilic).

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Argentine Juan Martin del Potro proved to be too strong for Alejandro Falla of Colombia on a scorching hot afternoon at the Estoril Open.

The eighth seed beat Falla 6-2, 6-1,  dropping just six points on serve in the 71-minute encounter.

Del Potro has a 3-1 lead over Soderling, who he will play in Friday's quarter-finals. The pair met last month at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami.

Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, a semi-finalist at Houston (l. to Nishikori), beat third-seeded wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 7-6(0) in 78 minutes on the picturesque Centralito court.

Cuevas dropped just 10 points on serve and improves to a 12-10 match record on the season (9-6 on clay). He will next meet fellow South American Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil. The pair has never met before.

Sixth seed Bellucci converted just four of 13 break point opportunities in his marathon win over qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin. He triumphed 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 58 minutes.