Top seeds Berdych, Almagro crash out of Swedish Open

Top seeds Tomas Berdych and Nicolas Almagro were knocked out in the Swedish Open quarterfinals on Friday.

Unseeded Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands beat top-seeded Berdych 7-5, 7-5, while second-seeded Almagro was defeated by Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

Berdych and Almagro were playing their second matches of the clay-court tournament after receiving first-round byes.

In the third quarterfinal upset, fifth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria rolled over third-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 6-2.

Carlos Berlocq of Argentina beat Albert Ramos of Spain 6-3, 6-4 to set up a semifinal against De Bakker.

Verdasco will face Dimitrov in Saturday’s other semi.

AP