LONDON: Andy Murray eased past Fernando Verdasco at the Aegon Championships on Thursday but an expected quarterfinal showdown with the man who beat him at Wimbledon last year was scuppered by Luxembourg left-hander Gilles Muller.

Top seed Murray, bidding for a record-equaling fourth title at the prestigious Queen’s Club, fended off some typically ferocious hitting by Spaniard Verdasco to win 7-5, 6-4 and delight a large Center Court crowd.

Earlier defending champion Grigor Dimitrov, who stunned Briton Murray in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year, became the latest high-profile seed to fall, losing 6-4, 7-6(5) to Muller.

Bulgarian Dimitrov, the sixth seed, struggled to deal with Muller’s dangerous serve as he joined French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka and 14-times major winner Rafa Nadal on the casualty list of a tournament boasting increased prize money and ranking points this year.

Wawrinka was scythed back to earth by big-serving South African Kevin Anderson 7-6(4) 7-6(11) late Wednesday night. Roger Federer kept his chances of an eighth title at Halle on track when he overpowered Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 7-5. late Wednesday night.

Nishikori eases into Halle quarters

In Berlin, second seed Kei Nishikori eased into the last eight of the Halle Open on Thursday, beating serve and volleyer Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-1 to set up a clash with Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz.

The Japanese gave the German wild card little chance to play his attacking game on the quick grass court and returned superbly in the second set.

“I am very satisfied with my performance today. It’s not easy to play Dustin and I did that very well today,” Nishikori told reporters.

Italian Andreas Seppi continued his good run at Halle after beating local hero Tommy Haas on Tuesday, outmuscling Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at the tournament for the first time.

He will now meet the winner of the match between Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin and France’s Gael Monfils later on Thursday.

Robredo saved four match points before Seppi kept his cool and sealed the win at the fifth attempt after a lob by the Spaniard went long.

Top seed Roger Federer qualified for the last eight on Wednesday where he will face German Florian Mayer. Third seed Tomas Berdych meets Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the other quarterfinal.