Arab No1 Malek Jaziri has exited the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships at the quarter-final stage after a comprehensive beating from seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The German eased to victory over his Tunisian counterpart in just 71 minutes on centre court, dropping just five matches in a 6-2, 6-3 win.
Jaziri, who had reached the quarter-final stage for the first time in Dubai with a 6-3, 7-5 win over India’s Somdev Devvarman yesterday, was up against it from the very off after being broken in his first service game.
Kohlschreiber completed a routine first set by breaking Jaziri once more before wrapping things up in the second with consumate ease.
Despite the relative simplicity of the German’s progression Jaziri will take a great deal of heart from his tournament so far.
Having entered as a wildcard for the event and arriving via a 24-hour flight from Mexico just two days before his first round win over Igor Sijsling, Jaziri has impressed in the early rounds en route to a career-best campaign at the event.
World No26 Kohlschreiber will now play the winner of this evening’s tie between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych.
Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic was given an even simpler route to the semis in Dubai as Mikhail Youzhny withdrew, allowing the four-time champion to await either Roger Federer or Lukas Rosol in the last-four.