ACAPULCO, Mexico — Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard advanced to the Mexican Open quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena on Wednesday.
The Montreal native ranked 19th in the world will meet France’s Caroline Garcia in the quarters on Thursday. Garcia advanced by eliminating Toronto’s Sharon Fichman 6-2, 7-5.
Elsewhere, top-seeded Dominika Cibulkova reached the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
"I’m still struggling with my serve, but I got another win so I’m happy", Cibulkova said.
Cibulkova has won her first matches on tour since her run to the Australian Open final and is due to play Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, who defeated Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-4.
In other matches, No. 8 seeded Shuai Zhang of China beat Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., 6-1, 6-4; America’s Christina McHale knocked out Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan 7-5, 6-1; and Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic eliminated Victoria Duval of the United States 6-3, 6-0.
On the men’s side, top-seeded David Ferrer defeated fellow-Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (1), 6-2 to advance to his fifth-straight Mexican Open quarter-finals.
Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
"I believe ‘Feli’ (Lopez) had several chances in the first set but didn’t take advantage of them", Ferrer said. "It was a tough one for me because he’s a very smart player and knows my game."
Andy Murray reached the quarters with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
The seventh-ranked Murray needed three sets in the first round to beat Spaniard Pablo Andujar, but put in a more authoritative performance against Sousa and set up a clash with France’s Gilles Simon in the last eight.
Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2.