There were no surprises at the Malaysian Open on Thursday. All four seeded players who were in action advanced to Friday's quarterfinals. Six of the eight seeds in the tournament are still alive.

Three Of The Top Four Seeds Advance

Top seeded David Ferrer led the charge as three of the tournament's top four seeds were in action on Thursday. Only third seeded Ivo Karlovic was not on the schedule, having already advanced to the quarterfinals on Wednesday in a three set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili. Ferrer along with second seed Feliciano Lopez and fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov were all taking part in their first matches of the Malaysian Open on Thursday. Ferrer opened against wild card entry Radek Stepanek. The first set was what you expect from Ferrer in 2015. At times, he struggled on serve as Stepanek broke him twice in the opening set. Then at times, he could not be stopped. After being broken that second time to give Stepanek a 4-3 lead, the Spaniard grinded out four of the next five games to come back and win the first set 7-5. In the second set, after an exchange of service holds to 2-1 in Ferrer's favor, it was the top seed getting the opening break of the set to go up 3-1. Ferrer would survive a bit of a wobble late to close out Stepanek 7-5, 6-3. The Spaniard did a large amount of damage on the Czech's second serve, winning 18 of 27 points. He also broke Stepanek five times in the match.

Feliciano Lopez needed just an hour and a half to beat qualifier Mischa Zverev in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (4). The second seeded lefty got off to a quick start as he broke his German counterpart in the second game of the first set. That proved to be all he would need to win the set. The second set also opened in his favor as Lopez scored a break of Zverev's serve in the first game. That would hold all the way to the ninth game where Lopez crafted a match point on Zverev's serve, but was unable to convert. In the next game as he tried to serve out the match, Lopez was broken for the only time in the match to even the score at 5-5. The set would go to a tie break where Lopez took the only point off-serve that either player would get late for the 7-4 win in the breaker. The Spaniard was solid on serve with 15 aces as he won 80 percent of his first serve points for the match. He was broken once, but saved six of seven break points overall.

Grigor Dimitrov started slowly in his match with Joao Sousa as the fourth seeded Bulgarian struggled to find his first serve. He was only getting in 41 percent of his first serves in the opener as Sousa took advantage to win eight of 13 points off Dimitrov's second serve. That would result in Sousa breaking Dimitrov twice in the set for an easy 6-2 set win. The second set saw a bit of a drop off from Sousa as Dimitrov pounced on his serve to win 43 percent of the points off the Portuguese’s serve. That included taking more than half of his first serve points at 53 percent. Despite that, Sousa was able to wiggle out of jams on serve until the sixth game when Dimitrov scored his first break of the match for a 4-2 lead. The fourth seed would make that stand up to even the match at one set each after a 6-3 second set win. Dimitrov looked to be headed toward an early exit in the final set as he was broken to hand Sousa a 4-2 lead. Dimitrov would break right back though to get on serve and reeled off four straight games in all to close the match out at 6-4 for the 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Pospisil And Kukushkin Prevail

In the day's other two matches, eighth seed Vasek Pospisil exacted some revenge on Marcos Baghdatis with a 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-3 win. Baghdatis had beaten Pospisil this summer at the BB&T Atlanta Open in straight sets. On Thursday, Pospisil won the tense opening set in the tie break with just three points separating the two. The Canadian won 46 points in the set to 43 for Baghdatis. Pospisil's eight aces were a huge boost to his cause. In the second set, the Canadian struggled on serve as he won just 48 percent of the points as Baghdatis broke him twice in the set en route to evening the match. The final set was delicately balanced as very little separated the players with Pospisil scoring the key break in the second game. That would hold up to help him close out the final set. Pospisil's first serve provided a lift as he won 17 of 19 points off of it in the decider.

Mikhail Kukushkin had no such issues in closing out Radu Albot in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Albot, who had beaten fifth seed Viktor Troicki in the previous round, could not replicate those heroics this time. Kukushkin punished Albot's poor serving to win 52 percent of the points played off Albot's racquet. It helped hide some weaknesses in Kukushkin's game where he struggled to win just 55 percent of his own service points. He had to save eight of 10 break points along the way. The key difference being his conversion rate on Albot's break points offered. Kukushkin scored six breaks of Albot's serve in the match on 12 opportunities.

Friday's Schedule

Four quarterfinal matches are on the schedule for the day. Center Court action kicks off with seventh seed Nick Kyrgios against third seeded Ivo Karlovic. That is followed by second seeded Feliciano Lopez battling the eighth seed Vasek Pospisil. The night session concludes with fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov versing Benjamin Becker and then top seed David Ferrer set to match up against unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin.