Tennis: Groth stuns Lopez to reach Stuttgart last eight
Sam Groth stormed into Stuttgart last eight with 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) win over Feliciano Lopez.
BERLIN (AFP) - Australia s Sam Groth pulled off a second-round shock at the Stuttgart grass-court tournament Wednesday by recovering from losing the first set to beat third-seed Feliciano Lopez in reaching the quarter-finals.
The 27-year-old from Melbourne, who is ranked 66 in the world, dug deep to claim a 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) win over the Spaniard, who is 14th in the ATP rankings, having held his nerve in a desperately tight third-set.
Groth has the chance to claim another scalp when he faces Serbia s Viktor Troicki in the quarter-finals.
Eighth seed Troicki needed three sets and exactly two hours to also reach the last eight as he saw off 18-year-old German Alexander Zverev, the youngest player in the top 100, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3.
Fourth seed Gael Monfils needed two tie-breakers to force his way into the quarter-finals with a over Austria s Andreas Haider-Maurer.
Monfils took nearly an hour and a half to seal his 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5) win and will now face either Poland s Jerzy Janowicz or home favourite Philipp Kohlschreiber for a semi-final place.
Monfils said that he is under pressure from his fitness trainer to win a first grass-court title, particularly as there is a new Mercedes on offer to the winner.
"He s in love with the car. He s been talking about it for two days," said Monfils, who sent down 18 aces.
"He said, I don t care if you re not a grass-court player, you need to win this car for me! So make the effort! I ve won my first match so hopefully I can keep it going and get this car."
Top seed Rafael Nadal starts his campaign on Thursday with a second-round match against Marcos Baghdatis.
