Top seed Mikhail Youzhny won a rain-delayed match against World No. 437 Alexander Sadecky, a Swiss wild card, 7-5, 6-4 at the Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad on Thursday for a place in his sixth ATP World Tour quarter-final this year.

Youzhny saved three of four break points, hitting seven aces and winning 66 per cent of service points for his 29th win of the season in 84 minutes. Sadecky, 23, was appearing at his first ATP World Tour tournament.

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Youzhny next will face Kazakhstani qualifier and World No. 147 Yuri Schukin, who advanced to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final by beating Frederico Gil, this year's Estoril Open runner-up (l. to Montanes), 6-3, 6-3 in just over 90 minutes.

Second seed Nicolas Almagro overcame a slow start against Swiss wild card Michael Lammer to book his place in the quarter-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. In a match featuring 12 service breaks, Almagro countered losing his own serve five times by converting seven of the 12 break point opportunities he created to seal victory in one hour and 45 minutes.

World No. 18 Almagro, a debutant in Gstaad, improved to a 35-18 match record on the season. Two weeks ago he ended a 17-month title drought with victory in Bastad (d. Soderling). He was also a semi-finalist on clay in Madrid (l. to Nadal).

In the quarter-finals Almagro will face Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who finished strongly in a 7-5, 6-2 win over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen. The No. 69-ranked Chardy is through to his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season after also reaching the last eight in Delray Beach (l. to Fish) in February.

Igor Andreev, who has reached the semi-finals or better on four of his five previous appearances in Gstaad, hit 16 aces past Swiss Marco Chiudinelli to complete a 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(6) win. The match was suspended at 6-6 in the third set on Wednesday due to bad light.

Approximately five hours of play was lost on Thursday due to heavy rain at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court event.