restored some credibility to the seedings system when he defeated Wimbledon runner up MaliVai Washington in straight sets to cruise into the quarter finals at the Paris Open yesterday.

The fourth seeded Russian, who loves playing in the French capital where he won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros earlier this year, scored a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 13th seeded American.

He now plays Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands.