Basel: David Nalbandian set his sights on a top-10 return after beating sixth-seeded Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the Swiss Indoors quarterfinals on Thursday.
Nalbandian improved to 3-0 against Cilic, including a semifinal victory in Washington in August, when he won while ranked 117th and returning from injury. A sore left hamstring followed a 10-month absence after hip surgery.
"It was a very strange year," said Nalbandian, who turns 29 on January 1 and has been out of the top 10 since February 2009. "That is one of the goals for next year. I'm just trying to play as well as I can."
The 29th-ranked Argentine mixed accurate serving and strong ground-strokes against Cilic, clinching the win on his first match-point with a powerful forehand.
Nalbandian, the 2002 Basel champion and a three-time runner-up, next faces fourth-seeded Andy Roddick who eased through 6-3, 6-4 against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.
Nalbandian and Roddick, both 28, have played each other only five times on tour and just once since their Basel semifinal in 2003.
"For guys who have spent a decent amount of time in the top 10, it's surprising," said Roddick, who got the last of his three career wins against Nalbandian in a five-set semifinal at the 2003 US Open. He went on to win his only career Grand Slam singles title to date.
Second-seeded Novak Djokovic won 6-4, 7-6 (6) against Jarkko Nieminen after the Finn squandered two set points in the tiebreaker.
Czech wild card Radek Stepanek earned a quarterfinal against Roger Federer by beating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Richard Gasquet of France won 6-4, 7-5 against Germany's Tobias Kamke, a lucky loser in qualifying who eliminated third-seeded Tomas Berdych in the first round.
Gasquet has a last-eight match against Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who got a walkover win when Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu withdrew citing a knee injury.
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