Tennis: Berdych, Raonic cruise into last eight of Portugal Open

OEIRAS (AFP) - Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic both posted 6-3, 6-2 scorelines to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP-WTA Portugal Open on Thursday.

Top seed Berdych won in 75 minutes over Indian Somdev Devverman while Raonic took eight minutes fewer as the Canadian second seed stepped up his claycourt game ahead of the French Open to beat Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

Berdych finished with six aces and three breaks of serve as the world number seven played for the first time since a third-round Monte Carlo loss last month.

The Czech will wait for a winner from Kazakh Andrey Golubev and Argentine Leonardo Mayer for a place in the semi-finals.

Berdych is playing as a wild card, and said that the chance to get matches on clay is welcome after his early Monte Carlo exit.

"When I got the last-minute call, it was a great opportunity to come play some more matches and get back into the clay rhythm. I want to be ready for the big events which are coming," said Berdych.

"It was a solid start but we are still in the early stages of the tournament, This was just my first step and I need to keep going. I want to focus on hitting the ball as cleanly as possible."

In front of a sold-out May 1 holiday crowd, Raonic managed what compatriot Eugenie Bouchard could not as the second seed lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in a quarter-final in the women's draw 6-4, 6-1.

Raonic, a career-best ninth, managed just six aces; his opponent, ranked 161, never earned a break point.

The winner lost just 11 points on serve, five of those from double-faults. Raonic next plays either Lukasz Kubot or Carlos Berlocq.

"I'm happy with this result and with the level I was able to produce," said Raonic.

"This was my first match here and they can be tricky. It can sometimes be difficult to find early momentum.

"But overall I look back and I'm happy with how it has gone so far. My main goal this season is to do better on clay than I have in the past."

Portugal's Gastao Elias duplicated his 2013 quarter-final with an upset of Spanish fourth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The number 179 will Friday line up against Victor Hanescu after the Romanian beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

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