After a close brush with elimination in round one, defending King Edward VII Gold Cup champion Peter Gilmour will be hoping for a smoother path into the semi-finals today.

Having edged past unseeded skipper Anthony Kotoun 3-2 on Wednesday ? after trailing 2-0 ? the Australian will certainly be wary of New Zealander Scott Dickson.

The latter, also an unseeded captain, pulled off an upset by knocking out seeded skipper Bjorn Hansen 3-1 to advance to the last eight and will be eager to press on to the final four.

In other quarter-final matches, world number one Ed Baird takes on Klaartje Zuiderbaan of Holland while Finland?s Staffan Lindberg battles Gilmour?s compatriot, James Spithill.

The last semi-final place will either go to Russell Coutts of New Zealand or Frenchman Mathieu Richard.