HALLE (Germany), June 15: French Open champion Rafa Nadal made a successful transition from clay to grass with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Slovakia's Lukas Lacko to join his great rival Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the Halle Open on Thursday.

Spaniard Nadal needed a little time to settle before overcoming Lacko in 76 minutes to set up a meeting with champion Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated Lukasz Kubot 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.

Second seed Federer, who has the road leading to the tournament stadium named after him, won 6-4, 7-5 against Florian Mayer to maintain his unbeaten record over the German having won their three previous matches.

Results:

Men’s singles:

Second round: 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Florian Mayer (Germany) 6-4, 7-5; 1-Rafa Nadal (Spain) bt Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) 7-5, 6-1; Tommy Haas (Germany) bt 6-Marcel Granollers (Spain) 6-3, 6-4; 8-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt Lukasz Kubot (Poland) 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-3.

Men’s doubles:

Quarter-finals: Treat Conrad Huey (Philippines)/Scott Lipsky (US) bt 2-Frantisek Cermak (Czech Republic)/Julian Knowle (Austria) 6-3, 5-7, 10-6; Lukasz Kubot (Poland)/Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) bt Milos Raonic/Adil Shamasdin (Canada) 6-3, 7-5.

TSONGA’S HOPES IN BALANCE

LONDON: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s Wimbledon hopes suffered a double blow on Thursday after he injured his finger badly during a shock 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 third round defeat by Queen's Club debutant Ivan Dodig.

Tsonga joined Andy Murray on the Queen's Club scrapheap, meaning the top two seeds and last year's finalists have both been eliminated before the quarter-finals, but more worryingly for the Frenchman was the injury which could scupper his Wimbledon participation.

Results:

Third round: Ivan Dodig (Croatia) bt 2-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5); Sam Querrey (US) bt 8-Julien Benneteau (France) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Xavier Malisse (Belgium) bt Simone Bolelli (Italy) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; 9-Kevin Anderson (South Africa) bt 5-Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (9-7); Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) bt Nicolas Mahut (France) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

ZHENG IN LAST EIGHT

BIRMINGHAM (England): China’s Zheng Jie reached the quarter-finals of the Birmingham Classic grasscourt tournament on Thursday, but admitted she almost missed the event after forgetting to enter.

Zheng clinched a 6-4, 6-1 win over Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, having had to play the qualifying rounds last weekend despite her ranking of 32 trumping some main draw players who stand at 120 in the world.

“I had to enter six weeks before, and at the time I was practicing in China and forgot. I wanted to come here anyway though, even if it meant playing in the qualifying. Before Wimbledon it's only two weeks of grass court tournaments,” said Zheng, who will next face fourth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci who dropped the middle set of her match against Britain's Heather Watson but rebounded to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Results:

Third round: 5-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt Casey Dellacqua (Australia) – walkover; Irina Falconi (US) bt Urszula Radwanska (Poland) 7-5, 6-3; 13-Hsieh Su-Wei (Taiwan) bt Melinda Czink (Hungary) 6-1, 6-2; 4-Roberta Vinci (Italy) bt Heather Watson (Britain) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1; Zheng Jie (China) bt Andrea Hlavackova (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-1; Melanie Oudin (US) bt Elena Vesnina (Russia) 6-0, 6-2; 8-Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) bt 9-Marina Erakovic (New Zealand) 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.—Agencies