Haas cruises through to last eight in Dubai

DUBAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) Tommy Haas showed little sign of his gruelling schedule, reaching the Dubai Open quarter-finals with a 7-6 6-3 win over Florent Serra of France today.

The fifth-seeded German flew from Memphis after beating Andy Roddick on Sunday to win his 11th career title, taking the court 18 hours after arriving here to beat Radek Stepanek yesterday.

Haas was in action again when he took on Serra.

The duo struggled to settle with breaks in the first four games but the contest then went with serve until Haas took the tiebreak 7-5.

A break for 2-1 in the second set deflated Serra for a time, allowing the German to break again for 4-1.

Haas dropped his serve at 5-1 before claiming victory on his third match point when the Frenchman double-faulted.

''I only had four hours sleep and was up at 0530 but I feel fine and it will take a tough opponent to beat me,'' Haas told reporters.

Sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych lost 7-6 6-3 to recent Rotterdam champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia while Swede Robin Soderling defeated Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 6-3 7-5.

Fabrice Santoro also outplayed fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2.

REUTERS PDS PM1943