Malisse reaches Open de Moselle quarters

Xavier Malisse of Belgium upset former winner and third-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 7-5, 6-2 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Open de Moselle.

Top-seeded Marin Cilic advanced with a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.

Malisse broke his opponent three times to record his second win in four meetings against Ljubicic, who had 12 aces.

Malisse will face eighth-seeded Gilles Simon of France, who needed nearly two hours and 15 aces to defeat Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

Jarkko Nieminen of Finland cruised past Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-4, 6-1 to advance. He saved six of the seven break points.