Two days on from climbing to a career-high ranking of 18, Bernard Tomic suffered an early exit at the hands of Marcos Baghdatis at the Stockholm Open.

Baghdatis, a former champion in Stockholm, upset the odds to beat fourth seed Tomic 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 on Wednesday.

The Cypriot – who won the third of his four ATP titles at this tournament in 2009 – felt his win was just reward for a well-executed game plan.

"I think I played very smart," said Baghdatis. "I used my slice a lot, I used my brain a lot. It was important to do that against Bernie.

"You need to be smart on court and not hurry too much and I think I did it very well."

Next up for Baghdatis is Gilles Muller, a player he beat in Atlanta earlier this year, after the Luxembourger triumphed 7-5 6-3 against John Millman.

Jack Sock came through a lengthy battle with Fernando Verdasco, eventually prevailing 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 in two hours 24 minutes.

The American, seeded seventh, claimed a decisive break in the ninth game of the third set, before serving out the match to love.

Sock will now take on third seed Gilles Simon, who rounded off the day's action in Sweden with a routine 6-2 6-4 win over Leonardo Mayer.

Mayer was broken in the first game of each set and failed to recover despite briefly getting back on level terms in the second.