Montreal (AFP)

Full-Color Card: Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Adrian Mannarino, the three French men still competing at the Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal, qualified for the 8th finals of the Canadian competition on Wednesday.

First to get his ticket for the next round, Richard Gasquet, 66th in the world, won the Japanese Kei Nishikori, 6th in the ATP standings, in a second round match disturbed by showers, winning 6-7 (6/8) , 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).

The rain-interrupted game played on details in the last set, with Gasquet serving for the first time at 5-4, but without being able to conclude. Nishikori then logically equalized at 5-5. In an 11th highly contested game, with several ties and two break points for the French, it is the Japanese who has retained his faceoff to take the lead 6-5.

And as the Biterrois has not weakened, everything was played in the decisive game, where the French led 2-1, then 4-1, before letting his opponent back to 4-4. Finally, Gasquet concluded his first match point after 3 hours and 9 minutes of combat.

"It's been a long time since I played at this level, especially since I started again," he said in a press conference.

For a place in the quarterfinals, Gasquet will face the Spanish Roberto Bautista Agut (13th world), "a big player, who makes few mistakes," observed the Frenchman.

"I have to recover well, to play the matches to be physically there again, I'm not saying that I'll be back in the top 10, but when I was there, I played without problems," said the 66th. world.

Second Tricolor to play Wednesday, Gael Monfils had less difficulty in overcoming his opponent, the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, from qualifying, although he showed signs of end-of-game fatigue.

The Parisian, 20th in the world, won in 1h 48 min, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), and will face in the round of 16 final Hubert Hurkacz, 42nd world and surprise winner of the N .4, Stefanos Tsitsipas.

"I do not have a lot of training, I'm a little bit right, and at the level of my injury, and the physical level," said the Parisian, referring to a sprained left ankle before Wimbledon who had dropped to the point of giving up in the middle of the match, in the first round of the London tournament, five weeks ago.

The French N.1 also explained to have "been in the red" late in the game because of intense physical preparation daily, intended, he said, "to make (matches) five sets", as at the US Open starting August 26th.

Last Frenchman to play Wednesday night, Adrian Mannarino, 69th World, swept the Croatian Borna Coric, seeded N.11: 6-2, 6-1.

"It was a very good match, I really did not make a lot of mistakes, I was very aggressive," said the 31-year-old Frenchman after his victory.

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