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Monfils and Berdych ease into quarters

Gael Monfils won with some ease © Getty Images

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Gael Monfils was given a light workout before seeing off Michael Russell to move into the last eight of the Open Sud de France.

In front of his home fans, third seed Monfils never looked in danger of losing to the American, eventually notching a 6-3 6-3 victory in one hour and 15 minutes.

Flawless on his own serves, Monfils was occasionally frustrated by Russell as he attempted to bring the contest to a quick conclusion - with the latter man saving seven of 10 break points during the match.

But Monfils' greater athleticism and hitting power eventually took its toll, as he moved on into the next round of the event.

Earlier, top seed Tomas Berdych brushed aside Frenchman Florent Serra 6-0 6-2 to also move into the quarter-finals.

Rarely troubled, the Czech needed less than an hour to dispose of his opponent in Montpellier, as he battered his way through the first set without so much as dropping a game (or giving away a break point) before easing off slightly in the second stanza.

Serra gave the crowd a bit more to shout about as the contest slipped away from him - creating three break point opportunities he was unable to take - but Berdych was otherwise infallible on his own serve and predatory on his opponent's as he moved into the next round.

The only surprise of the day came from Nicolas Mahut, who defeated sixth seed Florian Mayer 7-6(3) 6-3 in a little less than 90 minutes.

As is often the case the first set tie-breaker proved decisive, after neither player had been able to grind out an advantage in a set that saw each man claim one break. Mahut ran away with the breaker and never looked back, feasting on Mayer's second serve and taking both break points he engineered to dump the German out of the competition.

Later in the day, eighth seed Jarko Nieminen saw off wildcard Paul-Henry Mathieu 7-6(4) 6-1.

Elsewhere, in Zagreb there were victories for third seed Mikhail Youzhny and sixth seed Marcos Baghdatis - who beat Gabriel Zemlja and Lukasz Kubot respectively.

There was disappointment for second seed Alex Bogomolov Jnr, however, as he suffered a rather chastening defeat to Slovakian Lukas Lacko.

Having been bagelled in the opening stanza, Bogomolov Jnr looked to be gradually righting the ship as he won the second set after a one-sided tiebreak - but another collapse in the third set saw him suffer a worrying 6-0 7-6(1) 6-1 defeat.

At the VTR Open there were wins for Carlos Berlocq and qualifier Federico Delbonis - who beat third seed Thomaz Bellucci 6-2 7-5.

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