Mannarino, Herbert Earn Contrasting Qualifying Wins
Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Pierre-Hugues Herbert both won on Saturday to take their place in the qualifying round for a main draw berth at the 2017 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
While top seed Mannarino swept past Lucas Catarina 6-1, 6-1 for a clash against No. 13 seed Yuichi Sugita, Herbert earned a confidence boosting 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 victory over Marius Copil. Eighth seed Herbert now faces second seed Jan-Lennard Struff, who ground out a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) win in the final match of the day, which lasted two hours and 20 minutes.
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Fourth seed Martin Klizan saved four break points at 5-5 in the second set to overcome Evgeny Donskoy 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2. He will now meet Sergiy Stakhovsky, a 7-6(0), 3-6, 6-3 victor over Dusan Lajovic.
Mikhail Youzhny, the No. 11 seed, recovered from a 1-3 deficit in the deciding set and won four straight points from 3/4 in the tie-break to beat Taro Daniel 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(4). The 2014 semi-finalist now challenges sixth seed Andrey Kuznetsov, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Julien Benneteau.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the No. 14 seed, who knocked out Tomas Berdych and gave Novak Djokovic a scare en route to the 2014 quarter-finals, beat Florent Diep and now meets fifth seed Damir Dzumhur, a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Alessandro Gianessi.
Elsewhere, fourth seed Carlos Berlocq will take on Roberto Carballes Baena and Renzo Olivo, the No. 12 seed, faces Simone Bolelli on Sunday, which sees main draw action get underway.