Gael Monfils got off to a winning start on his Turkish Airlines Open Antalya debut on Wednesday, but was made to work hard for a place in the quarter-finals.

The fourth seed beat Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and four minutes, having led by one set and 2-0. Monfils recovered from 3-4, 15/40 in the deciding set, breaking in the 11th game. The 31-year-old Frenchman lifted his seventh ATP World Tour trophy (7-20 in finals) in the first week of 2018 at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final (d. Rublev).

“It’s always good to have your first grass-court match under your belt,” said Monfils. “It’s never easy, particularly against a qualifier, who has had more time on the courts. I’m not a big grass specialist, but I always try my best.

“The grass is a little soft, so it doesn’t bounce as well, meaning I had to concentrate and be on top of my game. I would like to come back into the Top 10, and now I feel I am back 100 per cent body-wise, but I need to get fitter. He was fighting all the time. I received great support, particularly in front of the kids, and I think we gave them a good show.”

World No. 41 Monfils finished in the year-end Top 10 of the ATP Rankings in 2016 after achieving a career-high of No. 6 on 7 November 2016. However, knee and Achilles injuries hampered his time on the court last season.

Monfils will next face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who saved one match point to defeat fifth-seeded Dutchman Robin Haase 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) victory in two hours and 27 minutes. Haase held his nerve on serve at 5-6, 30/40 and Ad-Out, in the second set and held one match point opportunity at 6-5, with Garcia-Lopez serving at Ad-Out. In their only previous meeting, Garcia-Lopez also beat Haase 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) at the 2014 ASB Classic.

Are You In? Subscribe To Get Tournament Updates In Your Inbox

The top two seeds — France’s Adrian Mannarino and Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina — both advanced on Wednesday to the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya quarter-finals.

Top seed Mannarino, last year’s finalist, improved to 6-1 at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania in 79 minutes. He struck 10 aces and lost 10 of his first-service points (30/37).

Mannarino now faces sixth-seeded Portuguese Joao Sousa, who beat Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 28 minutes.

Basic’s compatriot, second seed Dzumhur, later needed one hour and 54 minutes to oust Romania’s Marius Copil 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Copil hit 10 aces, saving 11 of 13 break points to frustrate Dzumhur, who had lost his past two matches.

Dzumhur now prepares to face France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who held his nerve to beat seventh-seeded Japanese Yuichi Sugita, the defending champion, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) in two hours and nine minutes.

Mirnyi/Oswald Survive QF Test
At 5/5 in the second-set tie-break, Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald were two points from defeat. But the second seeds raised their level, overcoming France’s Jonathan Eysseric and Hugo Nys 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-6.

Mirnyi and Oswald won 42 of 45 points behind their first serves in the one-hour, 31-minute contest to improve to 15-10 this season. In the semi-finals, the Belarusian-Austrian duo will face third-seeded Sander Arends and Matwe Middelkoop. The Dutchmen also needed a Match Tie-break to advance, defeating Radu Albot and Guido Pella 6-4, 3-6, 10-7.

Marcelo Demoliner and Santiago Gonzalez defeated fourth seeds Andres Molteni and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo 6-1, 7-6(3). Demoliner and Gonzalez won all five second-serve return points and converted both break points they created in a dominant first set before securing victory after 67 minutes.

The Brazilian-Mexican tandem will meet fellow unseeded team Roman Jebavy and Julio Peralta for a spot in the championship match. Jebavy and Peralta defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Joao Sousa 7-6(5), 6-3, 10-6.

Are You In? Subscribe To Get Tournament Updates In Your Inbox

Slovakian Lukas Lacko recorded the biggest win of his career on Wednesday when he knocked out Diego Schwartzman, currently a career-high No. 11 in the ATP Rankings, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 at the Nature Valley International. His previous best victory had come in February 2011 at San Jose against No. 17-ranked Sam Querrey in the first round.

Schwartzman came within one point of taking a 3-0 lead in the deciding set before a tense finish. Lacko clinched his second match point chance in a 12-point final game, which ended with the World No. 94 forcing his Argentinean opponent into a forehand error.

Schwartzman has yet to win a match on grass courts (0-7). Lacko, who captured his 12th ATP Challenger Tour title (12-12) in May this year in Glasgow (d. Vanni), will next face a Briton in lucky loser Jay Clarke or wild card Cameron Norrie.

Marco Cecchinato made his breakthrough on the spring European clay-court swing, but on Wednesday at Devonshire Park, the Italian recorded the first grass-court win of his career, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 over 2015 finalist Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, for a place in the quarter-finals. He will now prepare to face fifth-seeded Argentine Leonardo Mayer or John Millman of Australia on Thursday.

Cecchinato clinched his first ATP World Tour title on 29 April at the Gazprom Hungarian Open (d. Millman) and earlier this month reached the Roland Garros semi-finals (l. to Thiem).

Are You In? Subscribe To Get Tournament Updates In Your Inbox

The All England Lawn Tennis Club committee has announced the 32 singles seeds and 16 doubles seeds for The Championships at Wimbledon, which begins on Monday, 2 July.

Eight-time champion Roger Federer, 2008 and 2010 titlist Rafael Nadal and last year’s runner-up Marin Cilic are among the top singles seeds. Novak Djokovic, the 2011, 2014-15 winner, who is currently No. 17 in the ATP Rankings will be the 12th seed.

Since 2002, The Championships has employed a unique seeding system, where they take into account previous results over a two-year period on grass courts.

• Take the ATP Ranking points on 25 June 2018
• Add 100 per cent of the points earned for all grass court tournaments in the past 12 months
• Add 75 per cent of the points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months before that

The singles main draw ceremony takes place on Friday.

Singles Seeds [ATP Ranking]
1. Roger Federer (SUI) [2]
2. Rafael Nadal (ESP) [1]
3. Marin Cilic (CRO) [5]
4. Alexander Zverev (GER) [3]
5. Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) [4]
6. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) [6]
7. Dominic Thiem (AUT) [7]
8. Kevin Anderson (RSA) [8]
9. John Isner (USA) [10]
10. David Goffin (BEL) [9]
11. Sam Querrey (USA) [13]
12. Novak Djokovic (SRB) [17]
13. Milos Raonic (CAN) [32]
14. Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) [14]
15. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) [11]
16. Nick Kyrgios (AUS) [19]
17. Borna Coric (CRO) [21]
18. Lucas Pouille (FRA) [20]
19. Jack Sock (USA) [15]
20. Fabio Fognini (ITA) [16]
21. Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) [12]
22. Kyle Edmund (GBR) [18]
23. Adrian Mannarino (FRA) [24]
24. Richard Gasquet (FRA) [29]
25. Kei Nishikori (JPN) [27]
26. Hyeon Chung (KOR) [22]
27. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) [25]
28. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) [26]
29. Damir Dzumhur (BIH) [30]
30. Filip Krajinovic (SRB) [28]
31. Marco Cecchinato (ITA) [31]
32. Fernando Verdasco (ESP) [33]

Doubles Seeds
1. Oliver Marach (AUT) & Mate Pavic (CRO)
2. Lukasz Kubot (POL) & Marcelo Melo (BRA)
3. Henri Kontinen (FIN) & John Peers (AUS)
4. Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) & Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
5. Jamie Murray (GBR) & Bruno Soares (BRA)
6. Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) & Robert Farah (COL)
7. Mike Bryan (USA) & Jack Sock (USA)
8. Nikola Mektic (CRO) & Alexander Peya (AUT)
9. Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) & Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)
10. Ivan Dodig (CRO) & Rajeev Ram (USA)
11. Pablo Cuevas (URU) & Marcel Granollers (ESP)
12. Rohan Bopanna (IND) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)
13. Raven Klaasen (RSA) & Michael Venus (NZL)
14. Ben Mclachlan (JPN) & Jan-Lennard Struff (GER)
15. Dominic Inglot (GBR) & Franko Skugor (CRO)
16. Max Mirnyi (BLR) & Philipp Oswald (AUT)

Aussie Bernard Tomic, 2011 Wimbledon quarter-finalist, is a match away from qualifying for the 2018 edition of The Championships, which begin on Monday.

The 30th-seeded Tomic dismissed Tomislav Brkic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-2, 6-4 to move into the third and final round of qualifying. The 25-year-old Tomic will face second seed Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium for a spot in the main draw.

#NextGenATP American Michael Mmoh has never played at the All-England Club as a professional but he advanced to the final round of qualifying 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-0 against 27-year-old Egyptian Mohamed Safwat, who made his Grand Slam debut by qualifying at Roland Garros.

Watch Qualifying Live

Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who won the 2016 Wimbledon doubles title with countryman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, won’t be making an appearance in the singles main draw. Chile’s Christian Garin beat Mahut 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

In other action, German Matthias Bachinger dropped only three games against Brit Daniel Evans 6-0, 6-3 to advance; Austrian Dennis Novak needed only 67 minutes to upset 21^st seed Donald Young of the U.S. 6-2, 7-5; and German Dominik Koepfer came back to beat sixth seed Gerald Melzer 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

American Steve Johnson won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Nature Valley International in 2016. This week, the 28-year-old has returned to the grass-court ATP World Tour 250 event, looking for his fourth title after back-to-back triumphs in Houston.

In another edition of “On The Line”, an occasional question-and-answer series from ATPWorldTour.com, Johnson talks about why Davis Love III’s autobiography was such a hard read, the person he admires most and what he wants to do after his playing career.

What’s your biggest passion outside of sport and why?
I really love to golf. I like to spend a lot of time on the golf course, just walk around. It’s really peaceful and relaxing to me, and it’s just a fun way to get away and just have some fun and do something else other than tennis every once and a while.

What was the last book you read?
The Davis Love III autobiography (Every Shot I Take). It was a book given to me by a friend, with his circumstances very similar to mine, so it was a great book to read but also a tough one to read.

Davis lost his father when he was a young professional, and he was really close to him because he was his coach. (Davis Love Jr., a former pro and well-known golf instructor who taught Davis Love III how to play golf, died in a 1988 plane crash when Davis Love III was 24.)

It meant a lot. It was definitely tough to read but it was good.

Your favourite book of all time and why?
I really liked Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. He puts everything into perspective, what you need to do, how you need to work, and how circumstances can really affect your status in certain areas of life… Nobody got to where they are, this high in life – Roger, Rafa – they didn’t get there by accident; they worked hard. It doesn’t matter if you’re a surgeon, doctor, lawyer; you spent the time, you hit it hard and you maybe had a few extra benefits along the way but you don’t get somewhere by chance.

Person whom you admire the most?
My wife (Kendall Bateman). She’s somebody that’s stuck with me on this Tour, through some tough times and some great times… I owe a lot to her. She’s always got my back regardless of the outcome, so for her to always be my side is really special.

My tennis career will be a success if I ________________.
My tennis career is already a success in my eyes. I’ve had some great memories. I just want to know that when I look back, I did everything possible in my power to maximise my game. And I feel like I’ve done that to this point, so if I can just keep getting better and better every day, whenever I do hang up the racquet and look back, I’ll know that I’m very happy with my career.

After my tennis career, I want to _____________.
I’d love to be the coach at USC (University of Southern California, where Johnson ended his career on a 72-match win streak). I’ve talked about it a lot with the coach there now, Peter Smith, who was my coach there. I said one day there will come a time when I’m ready to kind of kick you out, so hopefully he’s ready for that. Not right now, we got some time, but I love Peter to death. He’s a big reason why I’m here today. He’s like a second father to me.

How does he feel about you wanting his job?
He laughs. I think he knows I’m serious but he laughs. Hopefully it all works out and the timing’s great. But he’s been phenomenal for not only my career but so many others who have gone to USC. They’ve got a great team and a great program. I’m super happy for them. I love to get back to campus whenever I can and just watch them and just enjoy being on this side of the team atmosphere.