In his opening match, top seed David Ferrer bested Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday to move into the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur. Ferrer, who received a first-round bye, went 5-for-8 on break chances and closed out the win in 93 minutes.

The World No. 8 improved to 41-10 on the season with the win, and is well-positioned to book his seventh trip to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. With 3,005 Emirates ATP Race To London points, Ferrer is 710 points behind No. 7 Rafael Nadal and 650 points ahead of No. 9 Richard Gasquet, neither of whom are playing this week.

In the quarter-finals, the 33 year old will face Mikhail Kukushkin. The Spaniard holds a 5-0 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

“This first match wasn’t easy,” said Ferrer. “I was feeling the jet lag a little bit, but it was the same for Radek. Now I will try to improve my game for tomorrow. Every match is different, and Kukushkin is a good player. He is having a very good year.”

Eighth seed Vasek Pospisil reached his third tour-level quarter-final of the season as he battled past Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3.

The Canadian struck 11 aces and won one point more than Baghdatis as he claimed his 20th win of the season in two hours and 28 minutes. Baghdatis was bidding to reach the Kuala Lumpur final for the second time this week, having finished runner-up in 2011 (l. to Tipsarevic).

“I didn’t really have a strategy,” said Pospisil, who struggled with cramp towards the end of the match. “I was just trying to stand on the court, be able to play the points and try to win. When I saw the ball I just tried to hit it hard and keep the points short. I played well, but I was just trying to get through my service games somehow. I was fortunate for sure to have won that.”

The 25-year-old Pospisil, who reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon earlier this year (l. to Murray), goes on to face second seed Feliciano Lopez.

The Spaniard survived a late fightback from qualifier Mischa Zverev to prevail 6-3, 7-6(4) in 90 minutes. Lopez was broken as he served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but regrouped to win the subsequent tie-break.

Lopez leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Pospisil 1-0, having beaten the Canadian in their one previous meeting at the 2011 US Open. The left-hander has a 28-21 match record on the season, and is playing his first tournament since reaching the US Open quarter-finals (l. to Djokovic). 

Grigor Dimitrov rallied to defeat Joao Sousa 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes to advance to the quarter-finals. The No. 4 seed was down 2-4 in the final set before sweeping the next four games to set up a meeting with Benjamin Becker. With the win, Dimitrov improved his 2015 tour-level record to 28-17 and evened the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.