Gael Monfils reached his maiden grand slam quarter-final with a four-set win over 28th seed Ivan Ljubicic at the French Open.
Ljubicic fails to reproduce earlier form
Local favourite Gael Monfils reached his maiden grand slam quarter-final with a four-set win over 28th seed Ivan Ljubicic at the French Open.
The unseeded Parisian prevailed 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-3 6-2 against Ljubicic to book a last-eight date with fifth seed David Ferrer, who required five sets to see off Radek Stepanek.
Monfils completed victory over Ljubicic - who had knocked out fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko in the third round - in two hours and 51 minutes by launching a backhand pass on his second match point.
"It was a good match," he said. "I'm not thinking about [reaching the quarter-finals]. As I always say, it's a victory.
"I have a very difficult match in two days, but for me it doesn't matter if it's a quarter-final or something else.
"It's just a big match and I might reach the semi-final."
He is the only Frenchman to make the quarter-finals following the fourth-round defeats of Julien Benneteau, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Jeremy Chardy and Michael Llodra.
Meanwhile, Ferrer twice came from a set down to quell the challenge of 21st seed Stepanek.
The Spaniard, also quarter-finalist in the French capital three years ago, required almost three hours to seal a 4-6 6-2 1-6 6-3 6-3 success.
Ferrer also needed a deciding set to dispatch Lleyton Hewitt in the last round, and the result improved his career record to 8-1 in five-setters.
