Monfils advances to Metz quarterfinals

Top-seeded Gael Monfils led Thursday’s winners at the Open de Moselle tennis tournament in Metz, France, beating fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-1, 6-1.

The 23-year-old Monfils, a 2005 Metz finalist, needed just 66 minutes to advance following his a first-round bye. He recorded 10 services aces and six service breaks, saving six of seven break points along the way.

Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic beat eighth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6 (7-3); fourth-seeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany beat unseeded Frenchman Michael Llodra 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; and France’s Richard Gasquet, a former Top-10 player, beat Belgian Christophe Rochus 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Friday’s quarterfinal match-ups are Monfils-Tipsarevic; Gasquet- Petzschner; No. 2 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany against Russia’s Evgeny Korolev; and third-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France against seventh-seeded Andreas Beck of Germany.

Mathieu lost the 2008 final to Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov.