STUTTGART: Michael Berrer reached the quarterfinals of the Mercedes Cup yesterday when third-seeded Nicolas Almagro retired injured while trailing 7-5.

Berrer, ranked 104th, advanced at his home-town event when the 11th-ranked Spaniard injured his right wrist. The clay-court event, hit by Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal and other top players’ withdrawals, lost its highest-ranked player remaining in Almagro. “I played very well against him,” Berrer said. “If someone quits, that means you were too strong.” Also in the second round, sixth-seeded Agustin Calleri came from behind to beat Pablo Cuevas 5-7, 7-5, 6-1. In the first round, fifth-seeded Simone Bolelli of Italy rallied to defeat Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2 in a match delayed from Tuesday due to darkness. Brian Dabul beat Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in an all-German match.

Starace eliminates Safin to reach quarterfinals

In Bastad, Sweden, Potito Starace beat Wimbledon semifinalist Marat Safin 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 yesterday to reach the quarterfinals of the Swedish Open. The win was Starace’s second three-set match in two days. The Italian beat 2002 Swedish Open champion Carlos Moya after two tiebreakers in the first round.

In tomorrow’s quarterfinals, Starace will play either fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic or former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden. They were to play a late second-round match on center court under the lights during the evening session.

Qualifier Bjorn Rehnquist of Sweden also advanced to the last eight at the clay-court tournament, defeating wild-card entrant Michael Ryderstedt 6-3, 7-5.

Next up for Rehnquist is last year’s finalist, Fernando Verdasco, who advanced when Swedish wild card Ervin Eleskovic retired in the second set because of injury while trailing 6-0, 4-2.

Mathieu loses for third time in a month to Cilic

In Gstaad, Switzerland, familiar foe Marin Cilic handed France’s defending champion Paul-Henri Mathieu a third straight loss in their series this season, advancing 6-3, 6-4 yesterday at the Gstaad Open.

A sunny day in the Alps proved to be gloomy for the neighboring French, with Russian seventh seed Igor Andreev defeating Florent Serra 7-5, 6-4 in their second-round clash. The luck of the draw has placed Mathieu and Cilic across the net six times this season, the matches compressed into the space of little more than three months.

When they first played, the teenaged Croatian fell to 0-3 after Mathieu won their first three at Miami, Munich and Queen’s club.

Dancevic spoils Dent’s return to ATP Tour

In Newport, Rhode Island, seventh-seeded Frank Dancevic spoiled Taylor Dent’s return to the ATP Tour by rallying for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, victory in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Tuesday afternoon.

Dancevic, Canada’s top-ranked player, trailed 4-5 in the second set before breaking Dent’s serve to get back into the match. He then broke Dent’s serve the next three chances.

Dent, who won his first of four ATP Tour events on Newport’s grass courts in 2002, was playing his first tour match since a pair of back surgeries last year.

After breaking Dent to even the second set 5-all, Dancevic held serve before closing out the second set with a well-placed forehand passing shot. He broke again in the second and fourth games of the final set-a stretch where he won eight straight games-before Dent finally held serve in the sixth game.

Dancevic failed on four match points in the sixth game before closing it out when Dent hit a backhand return into the net on the fifth match point.

Dent, 27, who reached No. 21 in the world in 2005, was given a late wild-card entry into Newport. He wasn’t that surprised by the result.

“It was to be expected,” said Dent, who had surgery last March and September. “I was told a year ago there was no way I was playing tennis and I’m up a break on the (No. 7) seed in the tournament. It was tough to fail the way I did, but it’s all part of the process.”

In other first-round play, fifth-seeded John Isner beat Jesse Levine, 6-3, 6-1; eighth-seed Kevin Anderson, South Africa’s top-ranked player, beat Gilles Muller, the top rated player from Luxembourg, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3; Pakistan’s top player, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi defeated Benjamin Becker, 7-5, 7-6 (5); and Prakash Amritraj edged Joseph Sirianni, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4.

The Hall of Fame Championships is played in conjunction with the annual induction ceremony, which will be held on Saturday. Michael Chang, the 1989 French Open champion, heads this year’s class.

Klepac upsets top-seeded Szavay

In Budapest, Hungary, Andreja Klepac of Slovenia upset top-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-2, 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the Gaz de France Budapest Grand Prix.

Szavay, ranked 14th, committed numerous double-faults in the first set and often appeared to lose her concentration.

Fifth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic also had an early exit, losing to Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-1, 6-4. Groenefeld will face second-seeded Alize Cornet of France in the quarterfinals. Cornet defeated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2.

Also, Karolina Sprem of Croatia defeated Tzipora Obziler of Israel, 6-2, 6-1.

The other four second-round matches are scheduled for Thursday at the Romai Tennis Academy.