Pouille and Benneteau into last eight in Marseille

French duo Lucas Pouille and Julien Benneteau reached the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.

Third seed Pouille, the runner-up to countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 12 months ago, survived a testing encounter with another French player, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, winning 3-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-4.

Benneteau, playing in his final season, had another moment to savour in front of his home fans as he defeated fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (7/2) 7-6 (7/5).

There was another miraculous comeback from seventh seed Damir Dzumhur, who eventually defeated Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (7/5).

Dzumhur saved four match points in his first-round win over Mikhail Kukushkin and on Wednesday recovered from 0-5 in the third-set tie-break, winning the final seven points.

Nicolas Mahut made it three French winners in a day with a 7-5 7-6 (7/4) victory over young Greek Stefanis Tsitsipas in the first round while there were also wins for Gilles Muller and Mischa Zverev.