Monfils, Troicki reach last eight in Stuttgart

Berlin: ​Fourth seed Gael Monfils needed two tie-breakers to force his way into the quarter-finals at the ATP tournament in Stuttgart on Wednesday with a second-round win over Austria`s Andrea Haider-Maurer.

France`s Monfils took nearly an hour and a half to seal his 7-6(8/6), 7-6(7/5) win and will now face either Poland`s Jerzy Janowicz or home favourite Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany for a semi-final place.

Top seed Rafael Nadal starts his campaign on Thursday with a second-round match against Marco Baghdatis.

Eighth seed Viktor Troicki needed three sets and exactly two hours to also reach the last eight as he saw off 18-year-old German Alexander Zverev, the youngest player in the top 100, 6-3, 6-7(6/8), 6-3.

Serbia`s Troicki will meet either Australia`s Sam Groth or Spanish third seed Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals.