Thursday was a day for straight set wins as none of the 11 singles second round matches on the ATP Tour ventured into a deciding final set. The ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam saw all the seeds in action sail through to the quarters, while the SAP Open in San Jose too was upset-less with the big two - Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco - advancing to the last eight. Meanwhile the unpredictable weather played havoc in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil with play completely washed out at the Brasil Open.

Top seed and new world no.2 Novak Djokovic was very solid in his 6-4, 6-2 annihilation of Swiss no.3 Marco Chiudinelli in the second round. Djokovic broke serve in the fifth game, and raced through his own service games dropping just 3 points on it all set. The second set saw the Serb pick up an early break following a marathon 15 minute third game, and a second break in the seventh game to close out the match in an hour and a half. Djokovic benefits from a leg injury to quarter-final opponent Florian Mayer to get a direct pass to the last four.

The quarter-final line-ups were confirmed today at the OPEN GDF SUEZ in Paris and the PTT PATTAYA OPEN, Pattaya City. The former continued to see its fair share of upsets, while the latter had a considerably quieter day after four seeds fell by the way side on Wednesday.

Three seeds were in action in Paris on Thursday with only one making it through to the last eight. Amazingly nine different nationalities were represented in the five matches taking place today.

Sixth seed Shahar Peer of Israel was the sole surviving member of her fraternity needing a little over an hour to beat Croatian qualifier Karolina Sprem. Peer will next face Czech star Lucie Safarova, who pulled off a huge win over 4th seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy 7-5, 6-2.

The Olympic gold medalist made the most stunning of debuts here two years ago when she swept to the title with victories over world number two Ana Ivanovic and number three Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"That was one of the best wins of my career," Dementieva recalled. "It was just an unforgettable experience. It was my first time playing the tournament and winning such a big title gave me so much confidence for the future. I just love coming back to play in Dubai."

Second seed Nikolay Davydenko in Rotterdam and top seed Andy Roddick in San Jose made delayed starts to their title challenges at the ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament and the SAP Open respectively, while a clutch of players booked spots in the quarter-finals of the two events. Meanwhile in sunny Brazil, top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero led the charge of the seeds into the quarter-finals of the Brasil Open.

3rd seed Robin Soderling was the first to make it through to the last eight in Rotterdam with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over world no.245 Igor Sijsling. Joining Soderling in the quarters is German Florian Mayer who beat 5th seed Tommy Robredo in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

It was a mixed day for the seeds across the two events on the WTA Tour on Wednesday. The $700,000 OPEN GDF SUEZ lost two of five seeds in action today, while the $220,000 PTT PATTAYA OPEN lost four of seven. Some rare survivors today included the big two in Paris, Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta, while Pattaya City saw two crowd favourites go out, while their number one star pulled off a shock win.

Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta, recipients of first round byes in Paris entered the last eight with routine second round wins over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Alisa Kleybanova respectively. Dementieva, last year's losing finalist had to quell a late second set burst from compatriot Pavlyuchenkova before prevailing 6-4, 6-4, while Pennetta faced more of a challenge in the opening set from another Russian Kleybanova, winning 7-6(4), 6-1.  Joining them in the quarter-finals was Italian Tathiana Garbin, who upset 8th seed Elena Vesnina 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

A largely favourable day for the seeds witnessed top seed Novak Djokovic show the way in Rotterdam, while his number-sake Juan Carlos Ferrero led the charge of the seeds in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. San Jose, USA too was friendly to the higher rankers as it witnessed just the solitary upset as a host of German players made their way through to the second round.

New world no.2 Novak Djokovic took less than an hour to book a place in the second round when his opponent Sergiy Stakhovsky retired citing a knee injury with the match over bar the shouting at 6-2, 4-1. The top seeded Serb is likely to find his next opponent Swiss no.3 Marco Chiudinelli more of a challenge. Chiudinelli was one of two victors today in a final set tiebreak, beating 2008 champion Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) on his sixth match point!