The defending champion Richard Gasquet eased his way into the quarterfinals in just under an hour with a 6-3 6-4 victory over nemesis Kristof Vliegen and so avenged his defeat of the player who soundly beat him in the second round at Roland Garros this year.

Avenging that painful defeat to set up an enticing match with dangerous floater Igor Andreev must have been particularly satisfying to the no.3 seed who looks like a rejuvenated player since his fine run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.

"I lost against him in Roland Garros so I wanted to win this match as I don't like to lose two times against the same player", Gasquet said. "Not the same as Roland Garros because I feel confident here; I played well at Wimbledon so I feel really confident. I served well; maybe he didn't play his best tennis but I played really solid today.

"It's never easy with altitude, but I played really well. Tomorrow it will be very hard for me against Andreev, but I am feeling very confident."

He took the opening set in just 22 minutes; breaking the Belgian in the eighth game and serving it out to love with a backhand smash on the final point.

Gasquet took complete control of the match when he broke to go a set and 4-2 ahead, however, a loss of concentration allowed Vliegen a glimmer of hope when the Frenchman lost his serve from 40-0 up in the eighth game.

Nevertheless, he immediately restored his break advantage in the next game; nailing a backhand winner down the line for 0-30, and taking the game when the Belgian double faulted.

Gasquet wasted no time wrapping up the match; with a forehand smash he closed out the game to 15 after just 59 minutes to move one step closer to successfully defending his title here in Gstaad.

Andre Jones

Roy Emerson Arena

Gstaad