Novak Djokovic downed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2 for the men's last eight while Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first woman to make the semifinal at the Miami hard court tennis tournament on Tuesday.
Also making the men's quarterfinal are No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 5 Andy Roddick, No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro and No. 8 Fernando Verdasco.
10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won 6-7 (4), 6-3 and 6-2 against fellown Frenchman and No. 7 Gilles Simon, the highest-seeded man to be eliminated.
In the first women's quarterfinal, No. 8-seeded Kuznetsova beat 18-year-old Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-7 (5) and 6-1.
Down at 6-4, 5-2, Wozniacki saved three match points for 5-5, but the Dane lost all momentum at the start of the third set.
"I was until 5-3 feeling very comfortable out there, but I got so dizzy and tired," Kuznetsova said.
Kuznetsova, the 2006 champion, will play the semifinals on Thursday against the winner between Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Samantha Stosur of Australia.
Third-seeded Djokovic will face Tsonga in the quarterfinal. He won his first match against Tsonga in the 2008 Australian Open final, but since then Tsonga has won all four of their meetings.
"I have lost to Tsonga four times in a row, so he has a little advantage," Djokovic said. "But I think all the matches we have played were very close. It's going to be a challenge for me to win."
Djokovic was seeking his second title at Key Biscayne. He won the tournament in 2007, then lost his opening match last year.
Tsonga outserved Simon to even their ATP matchups at 1-1. Simon won the first set in the tiebreaker but couldn't earn a break chance in the second set. In the third, Tsonga grabbed two of three break points while Simon missed all four of his.
Murray beat unseeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-1, 6-0, and Verdasco was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
Roddick won 22 points at the net in beating No. 9 Gael Monfils 7-6 (2), 6-4, and will meet the winner of the Roger Federer-Taylor Dent match.
(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2009)
