With No.1 Novak Djokovic through to the last four a day earlier thanks to the withdrawal of injured Florian Mayer, second seed Davydenko and number three Soderling did their part for seeded symmetry.

French fourth seed Gael Monfils was aiming to complete the top quartet against sixth seed and 2007 champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

Davydenko took charge to put out Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2 in his quarterfinal, lifting his record in that series to 6-1 with a 75-minute effort capped with six aces and a rock-solid attack.

Third seed Soderling pronounced his mini-slump of 2010 over after a crushing 6-0, 6-1 win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

"It may have looked easy but it really wasn't," said Swede who leads Davydenko 6-4 in their career series.

"It's tough to say what to improve when you win like this, but I can improve parts of my game. I was lucky to get off to a fast start in the match.

"You can't think about the opponent's feelings — he would do exactly the same thing to me. Once you are up you have to stay really concentrated."

Davydenko, who withdrew from consideration as a wild card for Marseille next week to have treatment on a minor foot problem, admitted that he struggles with Soderling.

"He's difficult for me," said the Russian who won the 2009 year-end title in London. "Our late three matches have all been indoors

"He's good from the baseline and fast. It's really difficult for me to feel like a favorite against him. All of our matches have been struggles, usually three sets."

Soderling blew through to the final four in just over an hour with five breaks of serve against Benneteau, ranked 38th.

The winner improved to 7-2 in Rotterdam, where he played the final two years ago against Frenchman Michael Llodra.

Soderling said that losing in the first rounds of his only two ATP matches on January in Chennai and Melbourne could have been a blessing in disguise.

"I went home and I was finally able to rest, that was what I had needed after a long 2009 season. "This is the first time in months that I've felt like I was playing my best.

"I played much better today, my game feels like it's going in the right way. I've finally started feeling good and just hope it gets better and better."

In San Jose, California, Andy Roddick reached the quarterfinals for the eighth time in nine tries at the SAP Open by defeating Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 6-1 in the second round on Thursday.

The top-seeded Roddick is on course to become the fourth player to win the tournament at least four times.

American compatriot Sam Querrey, seeded seventh, also progressed to the last eight with a 6-4, 6-4 win over another American Taylor Dent in their first career meeting.

Querrey also reached the quarters of this event last year.

A third US player, Michael Russell, also won through by beating Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse 6-4, 7-5.

Second-seeded Fernando Verdasco beat Benjamin Becker 7-5, 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal against Lithuania's Ricardas Bernakis — ranked 255 in the world — who defeated Germany's Bjorn Phau 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Roddick didn't seem bothered by the pinched nerved in his shoulder that he suffered in his five-set loss to Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last month or his knee injury that has limited his practice time.

"Tonight it was just coming off a bit firmer and I was able to move the ball around a bit more that comes from getting a match in," Roddick said.

Mayer matched Roddick point-for-point early in the match but Roddick broke him to go up 5-3 and finished him off to win the first set.

In the second set, Roddick began to dominate and a frustrated Mayer slammed his racket down after Roddick broke his serve to go up 2-1.

Roddick broke Mayer's service again in the fifth game when he went up 4-1.

"This was a good match for me," Roddick said. "I felt like he had big swings and I thought that forced him to play a bit more aggressively on the first ball of a point which in turn creates a little bit of a more hit or miss deal for him which caught with him tonight." Roddick will face Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the last eight.

Spain's Verdasco had trouble with Becker in the first set but was able to easily defeat him in the second set.

"I started playing well but he started playing unbelievable," Verdasco said. "He wasn't missing any balls. But I was able to break him at 5-4 in the first with a tough game and I got some confidence from that and maybe he lost some confidence.

"I was able to break him again and gained some more confidence and in the second set I played really good."

In the other quarterfinals, sixth-seeded Phillipp Kohlschreiber will play Dennis Istomin and Querrey will face Russell.

In Pattaya, Thailand, top seed Vera Zvonareva withstood a strong second-set challenge from Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Pattaya Open, winning 6-0, 7-6 (7-5).

Kazakh Sesil Karatantcheva reached her first career semi-final, taking three hours 23 minutes to overcome Russia's Ekaterina Bychkova 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in a match that included a massive 41 break points.

She now plays Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn, who defeated Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 6-4 to reach the Pattaya semifinals for only the third time in 17 attempts.

Zvonareva will face fourth seeded Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, who defeated Germany's Tatjana Malek 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

"I think I came out and played very well, very consistent in the first set and I think she (Bammer) was struggling to find her rhythm a little bit," said Zvonareva.

"I was very precize with my shots and my level of concentration was very good. And then second set, she knew she had to be a little bit more consistent and go for her shots a little more." Bammer had played two grueling matches in the last two days, and struggled in the opening set as many of the points featured lengthy rallies.

She faced an uphill task after Zvonareva broke to lead 2-0 and failed to convert four game points before the defending champion broke again to lead 4-0 when Bammer missed the easiest of smashes.

Zvonareva then dropped just one point in the final two games of the set, running in to reach a dropshot and hitting a winning pass to clinch the set.

After a brief break, fifth seeded Bammer returned to court in a more positive frame of mind. She broke to lead 2-1 when Zvonareva double-faulted and, although she allowed the Russian to level at 2-2, Zvonareva made a forehand error on break point in the next game and allowed Bammer to once again take the lead.

Bammer, though, failed to serve out the set at 5-4, beginning the game with two serves that failed even to reach the net, hitting a further double-fault to fall behind 0-40 and then making a forehand error as Zvonareva broke to love.

Bammer also missed another opportunity to take the match into a third set when she served at 5-4 in the tiebreak. She lost both points, and the match ended when the umpire over-ruled the line judge and called Bammer's return long.