The line up for the quarter-final at the inaugural TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open has been set as all the top four seeds who were awarded a first round bye led by the world number two Roger Federer of Switzerland have safely made it to the last eight to be played on Friday in the Turkish Capital in the first edition of the ATP 250 level tournament.

The quarter-final with my picks mentioned first alongwith the head to head records :-

Roger Federer (1) v. Daniel Gimeno-Traver (-); First meeting
Santiago Giraldo (4) v. Diego Schwartzman (8) ; First meeting
Thomaz Bellucci (-) v. Pablo Cuevas (3) ; tied 1-1.
Grigor Dmitrov (2) v. Ivan Dodig (-); Dmitrov leads 2-0.

Roger Federer registered his 200th match win on clay when he defeated his second round opponent Jarko Nieminen 6-2,7-5, beating the left hander from Finland for the fifteenth straight time in his career. He is looking to win his 11th title on clay and his 85th overall. It is his first meeting against the Spaniard who was a runner up in Casablanca ( loss to Martin Klizan) and a semi-finalist last week in Bucharest. Should Federer win his projected semi-final opponent would be the Colombian Santiago Giraldo who has never won an ATP tour level title in his career. Currently ranked 50th in the world he faces the Argentine Diego Scwartzman ranked 63rd. It is the pairs first meeting.

The Brazilian left hander Thomaz Bellucci who was once ranked in the top 20 faces the Argentine born Uruguyan Pablo Cuevas. In their last meeting in Miami this year the 73rd ranked Bellucci had beaten the 23rd ranked Cuevas in three sets. Both players have won three tour level titles each with Cuevas winning the Sao Paolo Open in February this year. The other quarter-final pits the 11th ranked Bulgarian Grigor Dmitrov, nicknamed Baby Federer on the circuit, against the 107th ranked Croatian Ivan Dodig better known for his doubles skills.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]