Thierry Guardiola out-slugged number five seed Nicolas Massu in a high-class battle of the baseliners yesterday and booked his place in the XL Capital Bermuda Open quarter-finals.

The two claycourt specialists treated the Coral Beach centre court crowd to a series of long, gutsy rallies, and it was Frenchman Guardiola, in his comeback tournament after a six-week injury lay-off, whose indomitable spirit made him the 7-5, 6-4 victor in what was a war of attrition.

In the last eight, Guardiola will bid to take out another seed this afternoon, when he plays third seed Jason Stoltenberg, who yesterday overcame Jan Siemerink in straight sets.

Guardiola is enjoying a successful tennis renaissance after almost giving up on the sport two years ago.

"I quit tennis for almost a year,'' said Guardiola. "I restarted seriously last year. In the second half of the year, I started to play well on clay and I made five finals in a row in Challenger tournaments, so it was a good year.

"I have been injured for a month and a half. But I'm feeling good now and I should be OK for the French Open.'' Massu, who reached the semi-finals in last year's Open, looked to have the upper hand until he served for the first set at 5-4.

In a tense game of more than 10 minutes, the pony-tailed Chilean missed three set points before eventually being broken. And the setback seemed to play on his mind as he lost the next five games.

At 5-6 and serving, Massu fluffed a sitter volley and then an easy forehand kill to gift Guardiola the first set.

The Frenchman's purple patch continued, aided by a rash of unforced errors from Massu, and Guardiola was soon 3-0 ahead.

Guardiola showed signs of nerves when he failed to serve out the match at 5-3, but that was soon forgotten as he broke Massu's serve in the very next game to end the Chilean's resistance.

And Guardiola completed his triumph in magnificent style, rifling a rasping backhand return down the line on match point.

Guardiola's ability to slide into shots on the loose surface and to stay patient as he ground his way through long points marked him out as a natural "dirt-baller''. His comments afterwards also left no doubt about his favourite surface.

"I was born to clay,'' sid Guardiola. "My first tennis club was on clay and I don't like the faster surfaces, but sometimes I can play well on them too, because I can change my game. I can play topspin or flat and I also come to the net a bit. But it's clay I love.'' Guardiola felt his first-round victory over Mariano Hood -- a hard-fought three-setter -- had helped him get back into the groove after his injury lay-off. He was sidelined for a month by an abdominal injury and for the past two weeks by pulled leg muscles.

"Once you have played three sets, you know you're in a tournament,'' said Guardiola. "I was a bit worried in that match about pulling my leg muscles again, so I was not pushing off my right side 100 percent.'' Guardiola was not too worried about tonight's match-up with Stoltenberg in the last eight.

"I don't think he's really a claycourt player,'' said Guardiola.

Continued on page 19 Thierry tops Continued from page 17 "I've only played him once before and I beat him in three sets in the Australian Open -- but that was six years ago.'' Australian Stoltenberg looked impressive in his 6-4, 6-4 victory over serve-and-volleyer Siemerink. The Dutchman's game was ill suited to conditions made slower by heavy overnight rain. Thus the sting was taken out of the left-hander's powerful serve and Stoltenberg often had ample time to reach volleys which would have been winners on a quicker surface.

Left-hander Siemerink struggled to adapt to the conditions and often left himself a sitting duck at the net as the Aussie fired passes both sides of him.

Stoltenberg has won three ATP titles on clay since his last appearance at Coral Beach three years ago and the consistency which has given him a place in the world's top 100 for seven years in succession was reflected in his solid groundstrokes.

One break of serve in each set was all Stoltenberg needed, though the closest he came to being broken himself was when he was serving for the match.

After digging himself out of a hole at 15-40 the jitters struck and twice Stoltenberg double-faulted on match point, before finally completing the job.

"At then end of the second set, he had a few break-back points and I was fortunate to hold them, otherwise we'd still be battling out there,'' said Stoltenberg after coming off court.

"The slow conditions made it so hard to hit a winner -- it was tough going.''