Fernando Verdasco has enjoyed a very successful European claycourt season with a title in Barcelona and a final finish in Monte Carlo (his first ever). So with a return to his favourite surface in Bastad, the Spaniard is all set to extend his impressive record. His 6-1, 6-1 drubbing of Frenchman Stephane Robert in just 67 minutes gave a fine testimonial of his strong stakes at the title at the 2010 Skistar Swedish Open and fetched him a place in the quarterfinals of the ATP World Tour 250 event being held in Bastad, Sweden.

Verdasco's compatriot and two time champion here in Bastad, Tommy Robredo was made to work hard in his pre-quarterfinal match against rising Kazakh star Andrey Golubev, who made a fine start to the match by taking the first set by 6 games to 3.

Robredo soon regrouped himself and claimed the next two sets to complete the 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win in one hour and 45 minutes of play. Fourth seeded countryman Nicolas Almagro put an end to the Spanish struggle by registering a straight sets 6-4, 6-4 win over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

The only other singles match turned out to be a battle of qualifiers when Croatian Franco Skugor beat local star Ervin Eleskovic 6-2, 6-3 to secure his quarterfinal berth.

Friday's quarterfinal line up brings some interesting match ups between Robredo-Verdasco and Soderling-Seppi.