Garcia-Lopez wins lengthy quarterfinal

Eastbourne, England -- Guillermo Garcia-Lopez won a third-set tie-breaker Thursday in claiming a berth in the semifinals of the Aegon International grass-court tournament in England.

The fifth-seeded Garcia-Lopez battled No. 4-seeded Julien Benneteau for nearly 2 1/2 hours before taking the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

Garcia-Lopez served for the match at 5-3 of the third set but Benneteau got his fourth service break of the day and they held serve until the tie-breaker. Garcia-Lopez took the first two points and then built a 5-1 lead before finishing off the match.

In Thursday's other quarterfinals, No. 8-seeded Michael Llodra routed third-seeded Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-3; seventh-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov stopped James Ward 6-3; 6-4; and Denis Istomin beat Illya Marchenko 6-1, 6-4.

Llodra won 60 percent of the points in his match against Simon and lost only 12 points on serve.

Dolgopolov had 14 aces in his win and Istomin didn't drop serve in advancing to the semifinals.

Friday's schedule calls for Garcia-Lopez to take on Istomin and Dolgopolov to face Llodra with the winners playing Saturday for the tournament title.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).

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