Alexander Zverev battled past Marcel Granollers 7-5 6-7 6-2 in 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach his fourth quarter final of the year. Granollers got a double break to take a 4-2 lead but Zverev fought back to win five of the last six games to take the first set 7-5. The second set went on serve. Zverev earned two break points on Granollers’serve in the last game but Granollers won the tie-break to force the match to the third set. Zverev broke serve twice in the third and seventh games and did not face any break points to win the third set 6-2. The young German will take on Gilles Simon in the quarter final. Simon beat US rising star Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-4.
“He is one of the best clay-court players and he has been playing well. He has a lot of shots. He can do a variety as well, so it was good for me to win that match”, said Zverev.
Defending champion Dominic Thiem swept aside Leonardo Mayer 6-3 6-0 in the re-match of last year’s final in just 61 minutes to reach the quarter finals in Nice. The Austrian player broke serve four times and saved three break points to take the win. Mayer earned two break points in the first game but Thiem fended them off and never looked back.
Thiem got his first break in the 8th game and served out for the first set in the next game. He won the final nne games and broke serve on Mayer’s last four service games In last year’s Nice final Thiem beat Mayer in the tie-break of the third set to clinch his first title.
Andreas Seppi came back from a set down to edge past Paul-Henri Mathieu 4-6 6-2 6-4. Seppi fended off 10 of the 12 break points he faced.
Mathieu came back from 0-30 in the second game by winning four consecutive points to break serve. Seppi faced three consecutive break points in the fourth game but Seppi saved them to hold his serve. Seppi broke back to 15 as Mathieu made a double fault but the Frenchman broke again to close the first set in 40 minutes.
Seppi faced two break points in the fourth game of the second set but he managed to save them with two service winners. Seppi broke serve to 15 in the fifth game. The Italian player converted his fourth break point after a hard-fought seventh game before serving out the second set in the next game with his fifth ace.
Seppi had to save a break point in the second game and three more chances in the fourth game. Seppi got the decisive break in the ninth game and served out to love to clinch the third set 6-4.
“It was a difficult match for me. I always have tough matches against him. Hopefully I can play another good match tomorrow”, said Seppi.
