The Open 13 Provence continued on Wednesday with the completion of the first round and the beginning of the second round. Third seed Karen Khachanov, fourth seed Ugo Humbert and fifth seed Jannik Sinner advanced to the quarterfinals.
Khachanov, Humbert, Sinner reach quarterfinals with straight sets victories
Khachanov reached the quarterfinals with a battling 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Mackenzie McDonald. The Russian edged a first-set tiebreaker with a late minibreak and after falling behind a break twice in the second set, recovered to win five of the final six games.
"It was a really difficult match, he won yesterday and he played already in these conditions", Khachanov said. "I feel like I was ready and played good, but matches [are] never easy. You need to adjust.
"He is so fast, you really need to build the point against him. It was a diffciult match, a really competitive one and i'm happy I could go through and get this kind of intensity and rallies."
Sinner reached his second quarterfinal of 2021 with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over French wild card Hugo Gaston. The Italian broke for a 5-3 lead only to watch as Gaston broke back, but Sinner recovered to win seven of the final eight games.
"There are some key points in every set and when he came back [in the first set], I was just trying to stay there mentally", the fifth seed said following the victory. "I think I did that and i'm very proud of that. In the second set, I tried to start strong.
"He is a very difficult player because he is always changing the ball a lot and changing the rhythm. I tried to play deep and play my game, but it's never easy when someone hits quite hard. Matches can change fast, so I tried to stay there in every point."
Humbert beat countryman and three-time champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4 to reach his second quarterfinal in three weeks after reaching the last eight in Montpellier.
"It is not easy to play against Jo", he said. "It was a bit emotional, but I tried to stay focused on what I had to do. I tried to put a lot of intensity [into my game] today and i'm very happy to win against Jo."
In other results, Egor Gerasimov needed just 52 minutes to dispose of Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-0 while Cameron Norrie edged French qualifier Constant Lestienne 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3 to complete the first round. Matthew Ebden reached the last eight after routing Emil Ruusuvuori 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles results highlighted by O'Mara/Qureshi victory
In doubles action, third seeds Jonny O'Mara and Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi eased past Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela and Fernando Romboli 6-4, 6-2, Ebden teamed with Matt Reid to knock off Andrey Golubev and Hugo Nys 6-4, 7-5.
Petros Tsitsipas and Stefanos Tsitsipas were defeated by Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 7-5, 6-1 while Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow beat Purav Raja and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 6-4, 7-6 (1).