Match Results & Schedule: Barclays Dubai

After struggling in the first round, Gilles Simon (pictured at the Dubai Duty Free marquee yesterday) steam rolled over Teimuraz Gabashvili in just 53 minutes of work. He will face countryman Fabrice Santoro in the quarterfinals.

Richard Gasquet was involved in a three-set shoot out with Italian Simone Bolleli that lasted 183 minutes. Both served big and hit big. The match was close and both players split the first-two sets. The third set was extremely close. Gasquet had eight opportunities to break the Italian, but Bolleli fought off break points by going for big winners when he needed to. The third set went to a tiebreak and was tight until the Frenchman snatched the twelfth point of the tiebreak to win the match.

Gasquet will face Andy Murray tomorrow. We'll see if he anything left for tomorrow after playing three hours today. Gasquet currently leads their head-to-head 2-1, but Murray won the last meeting where they played five-set marathon match that lasted almost four hours.

Wednesday’s Results:
Singles Round of 16
1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. Jan Hernych (CZE) 6-3 3-6 6-4
2 Andy Murray (GBR) def. Arnaud Clement (FRA) 6-2 6-3
3 Gilles Simon (FRA) def. Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) 6-1 6-2
4 David Ferrer (ESP) def. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4 6-2
5 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. Julien Benneteau (FRA) 6-3 4-6 7-5 6
Igor Andreev (RUS) def. Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 5-7 6-4 6-3
Richard Gasquet (FRA) def. Simone Bolelli (ITA) 6-7(4) 6-3 7-6(5)
Fabrice Santoro (FRA) def. Q Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) 3-6 6-1 7-6(1)

Doubles Round of 16
1 D. Nestor (CAN)/ N. Zimonjic (SRB) def. J. Knowle (AUT)/ J. Melzer (AUT) 6-4 6-4
D. Ferrer (ESP)/ M. Safin (RUS) def. 4 A. Ram (ISR)/ K. Ullyett (ZIM) 6-3 3-6 10-8
M. Damm (CZE)/ R. Lindstedt (SWE) def. WC P. Amritraj (IND)/ A. Qureshi (PAK) 7-6(4) 7-5
J. Coetzee (RSA)/ W. Moodie (RSA) def. J. Tipsarevic (SRB)/ V. Troicki (SRB) 6-3 6-4

Thursday's Schedule:
Singles Quarterfinals
1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. 5 Marin Cilic (CRO)
2 Andy Murray (GBR) vs. Richard Gasquet (FRA)
3 Gilles Simon (FRA) vs. Fabrice Santoro (FRA)
4 David Ferrer (ESP) vs. 6 Igor Andreev (RUS)

Doubles Quarterfinals:
2 M. Bhupathi (IND)/ M. Knowles (BAH) vs. R .de Voest (RSA)/ D. Tursunov (RUS)
J. Knowle (AUT)/ J. Melzer (AUT) vs. M. Matkowski (POL)/ R. Schuettler (GER)
S. Bolelli (ITA)/ I. Karlovic (CRO) vs. M. Damm (CZE) / R. Lindstedt (SWE)
J. Coetzee (RSA)/ W. Moodie (RSA) vs. D. Ferrer (ESP)/ M. Safin (RUS)

(images: Barclays Dubai Tennis Tournament)