No. 4-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland, No. 8 Florent Serra of France and Potito Starace of Italy joined Garcia-Lopez in the last eight.
Kubot beat Arnaud Clement of France 6-4, 6-1, Serra rallied past Stephane Robert 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in an all-French matchup, and Starace routed Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 to appear in his first quarterfinals since January.
Fresh after a first-round bye, Garcia-Lopez put pressure on Granollers’ serve, winning more than half of his return points in their first meeting.
He led 3-0 and held serve to clinch the opening set, then won five straight games in the second to post his first win in Casablanca in three attempts.
Garcia-Lopez, who went four rounds at the Indian Wells Masters last month, will next meet last year’s runner-up Serra.
Serra struggled with his serve in the opening set, double-faulting twice and landing only 50 percent of his first serves. But Robert, a finalist at the South African Open, could not break Serra in the two following sets.
Kubot, a finalist at the Brazil Open, got the better of French veteran Clement, who led 3-1 only to lose serve seven times in a row.
Meanwhile, Starace took Hernandez’s serve twice in each set without allowing any break chance to Hernandez.
The 73rd-ranked Starace improved his record against Hernandez to 3-0 and will next play Kubot.
Navratilova has breast cancer; prognosis excellent
Tennis great Martina Navratilova says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her prognosis is excellent.
Navratilova said in a phone interview Wednesday that a routine mammogram in January found a lump, and a biopsy the following month determined it was a noninvasive cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS.
The nine-time Wimbledon women’s singles champion had a lumpectomy in March and will start six weeks of radiation therapy next month.
In Houston, Texas, American qualifier Ryan Sweeting posted his first ATP Tour win of the season by upsetting fifth-seeded Kazakhstani Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at the US Clay Court Championships.
The 150th-ranked Sweeting converted three of his six break point chances in the decisive set on Tuesday to clinch the win in one hour and 54 minutes.
Fellow American Mardy Fish withdrew Tuesday due to the ongoing effects of a nerve injury sustained in a fall at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Seventh seed Michael Russell also pulled out with a leg injury.
Fish was replaced in the main draw by Indian Somdev Devvarman, while Michael Yani took the place of Russell.
Devvarman defeated Ireland's Conor Niland 6-4, 6-2 to set up a second-round contest with defending champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.
Yani lost to Kazakhstan?s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 7-5.
A pair of Argentines, sixth seed Horacio Zeballos and Juan Ignacio Chela, both won their first-round matches on injury retirements.
No. 2 seed Bondarenko upset
In Ponte Vedra, Florida, unseeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus handed second-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine an upset 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 loss in the first round of the MPS Group Championships on Tuesday.
“I didn’t start well in the second set and at the break I was telling myself to be more aggressive,” said Govortsova, who is ranked 52nd in the world. “She moves well and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes so you have to be aggressive to beat her.” Bondarenko, No. 25 in the world and a quarterfinalist here last year, couldn’t explain her early exit.
It was her fourth consecutive tournament in which she lost the first match she played.
Eighth-seeded American Melanie Oudin beat Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay 7-5, 6-2.
Oudin had a 5-2 lead in the first set slip away before rallying and broke De Los Rios’ serve each time in the second set.
Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, ranked No. 2 in the world, had 77 percent of her first serves in and took 56 minutes to win her first-round match against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, 6-0, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia held off Australian Sophie Ferguson, 6-2, 6-3.
Seventh-seeded Virginie Razzano of France withdrew with a right foot injury. Her spot was taken in the draw by American Vavara Lepchenko who beat Colombian Mariana Duque Marino, 6-1, 7-6 (2).
In other matches, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated Russia’s Anastasia Rodionova, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5; Angelique Kerber of Germany beat American Vania King, 6-2, 6-3 and Japan’s Ayumi Morita beat Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
China’s Shuai Peng beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2 and German Julia Goerges beat Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
