MONTPELLIER, France (AP)—Veteran Marc Gicquel beat second-seeded Gilles Simon 7-6 (4), 6-3 to reach the Open Sud de France quarterfinals on Thursday.
In their first meeting for six years, the Frenchmen dropped serve twice in the first set, but Giquel broke Simon two more times in the second.
Gicquel moves on to face sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win against wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, despite the Frenchman's 23 aces.
Fifth-seeded Gael Monfils had little trouble beating Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-2, and French qualifier Albano Olivetti downed Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5.
But in another second-round upset, fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia lost 7-5, 6-4 against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who plays Monfils next.
Later, top-seeded Richard Gasquet faced Paul-Henri Mathieu.