Djokovic pushed to three sets in Dubai

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was pushed to a third set Wednesday but survived to make the quarterfinals of the $2.23 million Dubai Tennis Championships.

Djokovic, who said he didn’t play well in his first-round match, actually won fewer points in the second round than Jan Hernych but escaped with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win. Djokovic got just 55 percent of his first serves in and the match was in doubt until he broke Hernych’s serve in the final game.

Five other seeded players advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinals with most having a relatively easy time of it.

Second-seeded Andy Murray improved to 15-1 on the year with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Arnaud Clement while third-seeded Gilles Simon ran by Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 6-3 and No. 4-seeded David Ferrer stopped Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2.

Fifth-seeded Marin Cilic and No. 6-seeded Igor Andreev each went three sets with Cilic defeating Julien Benneteau 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 and Andreev winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 over Dmitry Tursunov. Also Richard Gasquet beat Simon Bolelli 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) and Fabrice Santoro got past Marco Chiudinelli 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1).

Djokovic draws Cilic in Thursday’s quarterfinals while Murray goes against Gasquet. Simon plays Santoro and Ferrer meets Andreev in the other matches.