Two former Moselle Open champions, David Goffin and Gilles Simon, both advanced to the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Second seed Goffin, who beat Joao Sousa for the 2014 title, lost just 10 of his service points in a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff in 67 minutes. The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals contender, who is currently placed No. 11 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, will next face eighth seed Nicolas Mahut. The 34-year-old Frenchman saved all three break points faced to beat Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-4.
Fourth seed Simon maintained his fine run of form at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 40 minutes. Simon, now 6-0 lifetime against Garcia-Lopez, has won 13 of his past 14 matches at the event where he is the 2010 and 2013 champion.
Simon will next face Malek Jaziri, who won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Istanbul on Sunday. Jaziri advanced to his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year by beating qualifier Vincent Millot 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 49 minutes.
Lucas Pouille, the third seed, topped fellow Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals. The World No. 18 had match point in the second set tie-break at 6/5 before his 25-year-old opponent made a comeback to force a decider. Pouille sealed victory after one hour and 55 minutes, saving all three break points faced and firing 13 aces to set a clash with another Frenchman, Julien Benneteau, in the last eight.
Mixed Days For Doubles Seeds
Third seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus kept their cool saving three break points in a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory over Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak, while Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos beat fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. In the semi-finals, Peralta/Zeballos will face second seeds Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin, who were 6-1, 6-3 winners over Gero Kretschmer and Jan-Lennard Struff.
Elsewhere, Colin Fleming and Scott Lipsky saved two match points at 8/9 and 10/11 in the Match Tie-break in a 5-7, 7-6(3), 13-11 win over Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner.