NOTTINGHAM, England — Gilles Simon maintained his impressive grass-court form ahead of Wimbledon by easing to a straight-sets win over Joao Sousa to reach the quarterfinals of the Nottingham Open on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Simon, who was a semifinalist at the Queen's Club last week, won 6-4, 6-1 in 73 minutes to set up a last-eight match against Sam Querrey of the United States.
Simon's chances of a first grass-court title improved after David Ferrer, the top seed at Nottingham, was eliminated in the second round by unseeded Marcos Baghdatis on Tuesday.
Baghdatis, the Australian Open runner-up in 2006, beat Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in the third round and will play Simone Bolelli next.