Hewitt through in Mumbai

Lleyton Hewitt secured his place in the quarter-finals of the Kingfisher Airlines Open with a 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 victory over unseeded Boris Pashanski on Thursday.

With rain disrupting the schedule since the tournament started, the second-seeded Australian had also had to play his first-round match earlier in the day, earning a 6-3 6-3 triumph against qualifier Ti Chen.

The 26-year-old, who is seeking his 27th career singles title, will next face Rainer Schuttler after he ground out a 6-2 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/1) win over Viktor Troicki.

Top seed Richard Gasquet also advanced to the quarter-finals on Thursday with a 6-0 6-1 dismantling of unseeded Italian Fabio Fognini.

The 21-year-old Frenchman needed just 41 minutes to secure the win, never facing a break point while collecting five breaks of his own.

Gasquet has yet to win a final this year but made a name for himself by reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon before falling to eventual champion Roger Federer.

The top-ranked French player in the world at number 14, Gasquet has four career titles but has not won a trophy since claiming the title in Lyon last October.

His quarter-final opponent will be sixth seed Stefan Koubek, who rallied for a 4-6 6-3 7-5 victory over unseeded Bjorn Phau.

Fourth seed Jarkko Nieminen and number five seed Fabrice Santoro also won their matches on Thursday and will now face off in the quarter-finals.

Nieminen won 30 of 37 first-serve points in an impressive 6-0 6-4 victory against qualifier Toshihide Matsui, while Santoro was taken to three sets by French countryman Nicolas Devilder before pulling away for a 2-6 6-3 6-2 win.

The 34-year-old will need to beat Nieminen for the third time in as many career meetings if he wants to make his first semi-final appearance since winning his fifth career title at Newport in July.

Eighth-seeded Olivier Rochus also had a challenging second-round match before escaping with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory over unseeded Ivan Navarro.

His quarter-final opponent will be Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, a 6-3 6-3 winner against Yen-Hsun Lu.