IT was another day of action packed matches with quarter finalists decided in the Tata Open and a couple of Frenchmen progressing through to the next stage of the Open Sud De France.

TATA OPEN – PUNE, INDIA:

Four players are through to the quarter finals after three impressive wins on Day 5 of the Tata Open. Fifth seed, Yuichi Sugita had the easiest day of all, walking through to the final eight with qualifier Viktor Troicki pulling out of the tournament. Second seed, Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis joined Sugita in the quarter finals with a 7-6 6-1 victory over German, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. The news was not so good for the Italian seeds however, with both third seed, Stefano Travaglia and seventh seed, Salvatore Caruso going down in straight sets. Travaglia lost to Belarusian, Ilya Ivashka while Caruso suffered defeat at the hands of Czech, Jiri Vesely.

In the only Round of 32 match to be completed, Japan’s Taro Daniel sent Indian wildcard, Sasikumar Mukund packing. He defeated the home country combatant, 6-2 7-6 to move through to the Round of 16 where he will face Australia’s James Duckworth tomorrow. It took Daniel an hour and 39 minutes to finally dispatch of Mukund, winning 77 and 61 per cent of his first and second serve points respectively. He also produced seven aces without a double fault, while Mukund only served up five aces for four double faults.

OPEN SUD DE FRANCE – MONTPELLIER, FRANCE:

France’s Adrian Mannarino looked past a minor lapse in concentration during the second set to post a 6-0 6-7 6-0 victory over Australian Open surprise packet, Alexei Popyrin. He was joined in the second round by compatriot, Richard Gasquet who defeated fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon, 6-4 6-4. It was not as good news for young gun Frenchman, Ugo Humbert with the eighth seed bowing out in his opening match to the experienced Feliciano Lopez. The Spaniard won a rather easy 6-4 6-1 to book a spot in the Round of 16.

Speaking of the Round of 16, the first matches were completed for the round, with Frenchman Gregoire Barrere causing an upset over fourth seed Belarusian, Grigor Dimitrov. In a match that no doubt the umpire might have had some troubles addressing just one player given their similarly sounding first names, it was Barrere who used the home crowd advantage to spur him on to victory. Ranked 91st in the world and yet to win an ATP Tour title, the 25-year-old battled hard for two hours and 33 minutes before finally exacting a perfect comeback after dropping the first set to win, 6-7 6-4 7-5. He broke five times to three, and won 38 per cent of his return points in an even contest, with just five points separating the two players after an epic match. Barrere will now take on the winner of seventh seed Serbian, Filip Krajinovic and Sweden up-and-comer, Mikael Ymer. The other Round of 16 result was another shock with Vasek Pospisil turning around and smashing highly touted youngster, Denis Shapovalov with the experienced Canadian rolling the number three seed and compatriot 6-2 6-3.

CORDOBA OPEN – CORDOBA, ARGENTINA:

Four singles matches were completed on Day 5 in Argentina with Uruguayan sixth seed, Pablo Cuevas defeating Italian, Gianluca Mager in three sets. It took more than two hours for the experienced Cuevas to eventually get the job done, getting through a couple of nervous tiebreakers before running away with it in the third and deciding set. Cuevas served eight aces and won 78 per cent of his first serve points, while breaking six times to three – including three times in the final set.

In other results, Slovenian Andrej Martin knocked off Spanish qualifier, Carlos Taberner 6-3 7-6. Taberner really took it to Martin in the second set forcing it to a tiebreaker but in the end the Slovenian did enough to keep him at bay and progress through to the next stage. Cristian Garin made light work of Attila Balazs defeating him in two sets 6-3 6-0 while Corentin Moutet got the job done despite dropping the first set to Guido Pella 6-7 7-5 6-3.