Its quarter finals day on the ATP Tour at Metz and St Petersburg and at Metz it’s not been a great week for many seeded players with only two through to the last eight at the time of writing, top-seed Nishikori and fourth seed Gasquet (advised 7/1). Third seed Pouille was due to start his tournament yesterday but he withdrew injured before his second round match against Bachinger.

Top-seed and tournament favourite Nishikori will face either French Wild Card Humbert or fifth seed Basilashvili for a place in the semi-finals, German qualifier Bachinger faces compatriot and Lucky Loser Maden for the second time this week as Bachinger defeated Maden in qualifying and there’s the all French veteran quarter final between fourth seed Gasquet and Simon and hopefully Gasquet will continue his dominant record against his compatriot, which currently stands at 8-1.

The other quarter final is a surprise one between two unseeded journeymen of the ATP Tour who generally ply their trade on the Challenger Tour. Berankis upset the odds knocking out second seed and NextGen star Tsitsipas and his quarter final opponent Albot knocked out the experienced in form Fucsovics in straight sets. This will be there third meeting in total and all the matches were on hard courts. Berankis won their first meeting back in 2016 on the Challenger Tour and Albot won their most recent meeting on a third set tiebreak at this years Miami Masters 1000 Series.

At St Petersburg it’s been a good week for seeded players so far with six of the eight seeds still standing at the quarter final stage, but Second seed Fognini was the main upset losing against Klizan (45/1) and fourth seed and home hope Khachanov found a resurgent Wawrinka to good. Top seed Thiem will face a stern test against eight seed and home hope Medvedev, who has looked in great from so far this week dispatching experienced veterans Sousa and Kukushkin both in straight sets this week.

Third seed Cecchinato came through his first test and gained revenge against his opponent Lacko who beat him at Eastbourne this year. Cecchinato will face a much tougher test today against fifth seed Bautista Agut today and this is will be there encounter. Sixth seed Dzhumur who has been in great form this year and loves playing indoors could be involved in the match of the day against Wawrinka and Dzhumur will hope to repeat his straight sets win at Dubai on hard courts last year. The final match is between seventh seed NextGen star Shapovalov and veteran Klizan (advised 45/1) and hopefully Kizan will win their first encounter today.

Selections:

Metz

Maden Win vs. Bachinger (28/29)

St Petersburg

Medvedev Win vs. Thiem (18/11)