A little frustration from Gael Monfils would be no surprise after rain postponed overnight the completion of his second-round victory over top seed Marin Cilic at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The unseeded Frenchman had already let a match point slip the day before against the Croat and faced a set point after the resumption of play on Thursday.

Fortunately for Monfils, however, the pair returned to court for just four more points, as he completed the upset on his second match point, 6-3, 7-6(8). The win extends Monfils’ FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the Australian Open finalist to 3-0. He had beaten Cilic once before in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Next up, he faces Argentine sixth seed Diego Schwartzman for a semi-final berth. Monfils won the pair’s only prior clash at Roland Garros three years ago.

“I don’t think I feel very good, it’s not about numbers,” Monfils said. “I think I’m not in my best shape yet, I’m fighting for every point.  Tomorrow will be a great match, Schwartzman is a very fast player. I will have to play more aggressive.”

Second seed and defending champion Dominic Thiem was earlier handed a comfortable passage through to the quarter-finals when his opponent, Spain’s Pablo Andujar, retired trailing 2-4 with a right shoulder injury. The Austrian will take on another Spaniard in the quarter-finals after Fernando Verdasco rebounded strongly for a 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-0 win over Argentine Nicolas Kicker.

“Never played him on clay, only on grass and fast hard court last year at Bercy [Paris],” Thiem said. “It’s going to be very tough. He’s fit and he’s fresh as we saw today. He played a long match…  I have to watch out that I am the one dictating the game because once you let him dictate with his forehand, the point is almost over.”

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The 2015 runner-up and No. 5 seed Fabio Fognini prevailed in a three-set thriller against American Tennys Sandgren 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(6). The Italian will next meet Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene, a player he owns a perfect 7-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against.

Watch Hot Shot: Fognini Scrambles For Winning Lob

Bedene continued his impressive form of late with an upset of No. 3 seed Pablo Carreno-Busta, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. The World No. 43 reached his third ATP World Tour final last week in Buenos Aires where he fell to Thiem.

“Never easy to face someone that defeated you in all seven matches,” Bedene said of facing Fognini. “But this time I’m playing better. I have been playing some really good tennis and now I have my best ranking on ATP … so, yes, I consider this the best moment of my career.”

Seventh seed and 2016 champion Pablo Cuevas booked an all-South American quarter-final against Chilean Nicolas Jarry. The Uruguayan saw off lucky loser Gastao Elias of Portugal 7-5, 6-1.

The four-time champions needed one hour, two minutes to book their place in the quarter-finals, where they’ll face fellow Americans Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow.

In other action, top seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus reached the Open 13 Provence semi-finals after a 6-3, 6-3 win over Florin Mergea and Daniel Nestor. Klaasen and Venus reached their second semi-final of the season (Auckland) with great composure, saving all six break points they faced in the 57-minute contest.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin needed a Match tie-break to join Klaasen and Venus in the final four. The Indian-French duo dropped just five points behind its first serve, but needed to come from a set down to beat Jamie Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-4. Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot edged two tie-break sets to overcome Maximilian Marterer and Joao Sousa 7-6(11), 7-6(2). The fourth seeds saved five set points in a dramatic first set before eventually booking a second-round clash with Jonathan Eysseric and Gilles Simon.

David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco upset fourth-seeded team Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta, 7-5, 3-6, 10-2 to advance to the semi-finals at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The Spanish pair will play the winners between second seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares and Roman Jebavy/Leonardo Mayer for a place in the final.

In a rain-interrupted Wednesday, a pair of South Americans – Nicolas Jarry and No. 6 seed Diego Schwartzman – have surged into the Rio Open presented by Claro quarter-finals. Chilean Jarry started the day with an upset of No. 4 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, 7-5, 6-3, before Schwartzman breezed through an all-Argentine clash with Federico Delbonis 6-2, 6-3.

Top seed Marin Cilic was locked in a gripping battle with former top tenner Gael Monfils before rain cancelled the night’s play. The Croat had rebounded from dropping the opening set and saved a match point after a rain delay in the second set tie-break before rain returned with the pair locked at 3-6, 6-6 and 7-all in the tie-break.

“I was feeling very good but was a bit hyper, going for too much on the ball,” Jarry said of falling behind 3-5 in the first set. “I tried to not give any points to him and I broke him. I did a couple of good returns and after that he got a bit tighter and gave me the advantage for the rest of the match.”

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For Jarry, a win over Ramos-Vinolas marked his first win over a Top 20 opponent and landed him in a maiden ATP World Tour quarter-final.

“I’m happy to pull it over. I was getting very nervous,” the World No. 94 in the ATP Rankings said. “The last game that I broke him he didn’t have too much energy. I also lowered mine and I didn’t keep my focus on the things I had to do. A couple of big errors almost cost me that second set.

“It’s a tough match, Albert is one of the best clay-court players in the present. He’s a great guy and I’m very happy to be in the quarter-finals.”

The 22-year-old bounced back from 3-5 down in the opening set against the World No. 19. He finished up winning 10 of the last 13 games of the match and will next face either No. 7 seed Pablo Cuevas or Portugal’s Gastao Elias for a place in his first ATP World Tour semi-final.

“I’m just doing the same as I did last year – have fun on the court, train as hard as I can, stay very concentrated,” Jarry said.

“Last year I had a great year in Challengers. I didn’t have the ranking to play ATP [events]. Now I have and I’m making the best out of it and I’m very happy for being able to do it.”

Steve Johnson has denied Milos Raonic back-to-back Delray Beach Open finals appearances with his first win over the Canadian on Wednesday. The American posted a 6-2, 6-4 result over the No.9 seed to reach the quarter-finals.

Johnson had fallen in three prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Raonic. He will next meet Russian Evgeny Donskoy, an earlier 7-6(6), 6-3 winner over American Donald Young.

“The first set kind of got away from him with a second break so that is always comfortable,” Johnson said.

“It was important to get those first points on my serve to give myself a little bit of breathing room because when you get down and he starts hitting balls hard for winners, it’s kind of out of your control.”

World No. 51 in the ATP Rankings, Johnson withstood 11 aces from the 27 year old and lost just four points on his first serve to secure the result. It will be his first quarter-final appearance of 2018, a positive note in what has been by his own admission an up and down time of late.

“Still trying to keep my head above water and just take it one day at a time,” Johnson said. “Any chance you get to play more matches that always builds confidence.”

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Raonic was in no way ready to apportion blame for his defeat on the blustery conditions disrupting his rhythm on Wednesday. The loss sees him fall to a 1-3 start to 2018.

“I’ve got to definitely review it, think about it, because that was a pretty poor level I put out there today. Not much to be happy with,” he said.

“I think he was just sharp. I’ve played him before so I knew what to expect. He was more aggressive today than other times. Was that my lack of creation, or was he just taking over and making me feel, in a lot of ways, silly out there? … I had a tough time with a lot of things today.” 

In a mixed day for the Americans, No. 6 seed John Isner also fell. German Peter Gojowczyk eked out a 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 7-6(5) triumph over the three-time Delray Beach Open semi-finalist to await the winner of top seed Jack Sock and #NextGen ATP player Reilly Opelka. It is Gojowczyk’s third quarter-final of 2018 having already reached the last eight in Doha and Auckland.