Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga denied the Zverev family two quarter-finalists at the Shanghai Rolex Masters as he rallied to defeat the younger of the two, Alexander Zverev, 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5, in the third round on Thursday.
Mischa Zverev advanced to the last eight with a three-set win over Marcel Granollers, but his younger brother was unable to capitalise on the 4-1 lead in the final set that he held over Tsonga.
As Zverev's frustration mounted, an inspired Tsonga mounted a fightback, winning six of the last seven games to clinch victory in two hours and 27 minutes.
Tsonga is enjoying a successful return from the left knee injury that forced him to retire against Novak Djokovic in the US Open quarter-finals and that kept him out of Metz, Chengdu and Beijing.
The Frenchman is bidding to reach the final of this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the second year in a row, having finished runner-up to Djokovic last year. He goes on to face Roberto Bautista Agut for a spot in the semi-finals.
The 19-year-old Zverev, a star of the ATP's Next Generation, had defeated John Isner and eighth seed Marin Cilic to reach the third round. The German recently won his first ATP World Tour title in St. Petersburg (d. Wawrinka) and is on course for a Top 20 finish in the Emirates ATP Rankings.
The 15th-seeded Bautista Agut defeated Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-3 in 74 minutes. On Wednesday, Troicki had stunned Rafael Nadal in the second round, but could not back up his stellar performance against Bautista Agut, whom he now trails 0-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
Bautista Agut is a two-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season and is through to the quarter-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in 2016. The Spaniard has a 2-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record with Tsonga, winning their past two meetings, which both came this year in Auckland and Miami.