Doha Round-up: Murray, Ferrer, Gasquet ousted; Nadal scrapes through

Andy Murray, David Ferrer & Fernando Verdasco all made rather surprising exits from the Qatar Open in Doha as only two of the top 8 seeds moved into the quarter finals.

Rafael Nadal barely managed to scrape through as he overcame a mid-match slump to beat German Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 in 2 hours & 25 minutes. Nadal faced lot of difficulty in converting break points & managed to get through after dropping the second set in a tie-break. The Spaniard faces Ernests Gulbis, the only other seeded player left in the draw, in the QF after the Latvian beat Lukasz Kubot in round 2.

Elsewhere, Florian Mayer stunned Wimbledon champion & third-seed Andy Murray 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in an hour & 52 minutes. Mayer was down a set & 0-3 at one point before he decided to go for broke. The move paid off as the Brit was unable to hold off Mayer’s aggressive game on the hardcourts at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.

There was to be another upset in the day when Daniel Brands sent second-seeded French Open runner-up David Ferrer packing 6-4, 7-5 in just an hour & 15 minutes.

Frenchman Gael Monfils also moved into the QF ousting fellow countryman & defending champion Richard Gasquet 6-2, 7-5. Fifth-seeded Gasquet lost serve four times as Monfils registered a comfortable victory.

In other round 2 results, Peter Gojowczyk beat Philipp Kohlschreiber, Victor Hanescu beat Fernando Verdasco & Dustin Brown beat big serving Ivo Karlovic to move into the QF.

Quarter Final Line-up :

Dustin Brown vs Peter Gojowczyk

Victor Hanescu vs Florian Mayer

Rafael Nadal(1) vs Ernests Gulbis(7)

Gael Monfils vs Daniel Brands