David Ferrer overcame a first-set hiccup to down countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Rio Open on Thursday. Looming in the quarter-finals will be an in-form Dominic Thiem, who won the Buenos Aires title on clay less than a week ago.

Ferrer came into the match with a commanding 5-0 advantage in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Ramos-Vinolas, but faltered in his opening service game en route to dropping the first set in 51 minutes. The tenacious Ferrer righted the ship, only losing serve once more in the next two sets to reach his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year.

Guido Pella lost just eight points in the second set of a 6-4, 6-0 win over Santiago Giraldo. The Argentine secured the win in 80 minutes and will face Daniel Gimeno-Traver in his second ATP World Tour quarter-final appearance (2013 Dusseldorf, l. to Monaco). Pella had saved three match points in the first round against John Isner.

In the evening session, top seed Rafael Nadal will attempt to record his 14^th win in 15 meetings against Nicolas Almagro, last week’s finalist in Buenos Aires.

Eighth seed Benoit Paire will meet his good friend, top seed Stan Wawrinka, on Friday for a place in the semi-finals at the Open 13 Provence. Wawrinka leads Paire 6-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including victory last month in Chennai. Paire hit 10 aces past fellow Frenchman Vincent Millot, a qualifier, in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over one hour and 36 minutes on Thursday.

Andrey Kuznetsov, who turns 25 on Monday, will hope to improve on his 0-5 record in ATP World Tour quarter-finals when he takes on four seed and 2011 finalist Marin Cilic. Kuznetsov moved into the last eight by beating wild card Quentin Halys 6-0, 6-4 in 56 minutes.

Nick Kyrgios, who is playing in his second tournament of the year, struck 17 aces past Teymuraz Gabashvili in a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 72 minutes. He now awaits the winner of third seed Richard Gasquet or Ernests Gulbis, who play during the evening session. Earlier this month, Gasquet won his 13th ATP World Tour title at Montpellier (d. Mathieu).

Second seed and 2013 runner-up Tomas Berdych plays wild card Alexander Zverev to close out play on day four.

Mike and Bob Bryan moved two steps closer to claiming their third consecutive Delray Beach Open doubles title with their dismissal of Australians John Millman and John-Patrick Smith 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday night. The top seeds were then handed a walkover into the semi-finals when a leg injury to Mikhail Kukushkin meant he and Illya Marchenko would not take the court.

The Austrian-French pairing of Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin joined the Bryan brothers in the semi-finals after defeating the all-American duo of Denis Kudla and Donald Young 6-4, 6-4. While Millman and Smith failed to get a win on the board, their countrymen Chris Guccione and Bernard Tomic rebounded for a 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 first-round win over Sander Groen and Adelchi Virgili.

Jeremy Chardy and Leander Paes took down No. 4 seeds Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky 6-4, 7-5 while No. 3 seeds Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey landed a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez.

At the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, Aliaksandr Bury and Igor Zelenay were the first through to the doubles semi-finals after a 7-6(6), 6-7(9), 10-3 triumph over Rameez Junaid and Jonathan Marray. In first round matches, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Nick Kyrgios benefitted from a walkover when bronchitis meant Lucas Pouille could not take the court with Nicolas Mahut. Mateusz Kowalczyk and Andreas Siljestrom also advanced with a  7-5, 6-1 win over David Guez and Benoit Paire.

In first round matches at the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro, second seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal had a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory over Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, while qualifiers Pablo Carreno Busta and David Marrero downed Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya 6-3, 3-6, 11-9. Paul Henri-Mathieu and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga went through by retirement while trailing Nicolas Monroe and Jack Sock 4-6, 0-3, while Federico Delbonis and Paolo Lorenzi had a 6-4, 6-4 win over Maximo Gonzalez and Andre Sa.

The highest remaining seed at the Delray Beach Open, Grigor Dimitrov, has avoided joining the list of upsets, surviving 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Damir Dzumhur on Wednesday night. Trailing a set, the Bulgarian was down a break in the second and third sets before rallying to deny the Bosnian the quarter-final berth.

Dzumhur, making his Delray Beach debut, had avenged his Memphis defeat to Ricardas Berankis in the first round and had the World No. 28 in the Emirates ATP Rankings well and truly on the ropes. 

“I was trying to find my game. I didn’t think I was playing well. All the credit to Damir, he deserved all the way to win,” Dimitrov said. “I was just patient and I was very centred towards the end of the match. I thought I was very composed and just putting the ball in the court, that’s all I had to do. A win is a win.”

It was the Bulgarian who made the stronger start, breaking for 2-0 before surging to 4-1. From there, however, the 23-year-old Dzumhur reeled off five straight games to take the opening set after 39 minutes.

Trailing a break at 2-3 in the second set, Dimitrov broke his opponent to draw level before breaking again to send the match to a decider on his second set point. As with the start of the second set, however, Dimitrov dropped serve immediately and soon found himself down 3-1 in the third. He would survive two break points when serving for the match, eventually taking the last five games to close it out in just under two hours.

“As soon as darkness came it was just a completely different game,” Dimitrov said. “The ball was a little lower. He was chasing a lot of balls down, playing down the line, which surprised me.

“I found a solution, that was it. I knew physically I was going to be there … Today, I had good composure throughout; in the second and third sets things just happened for me.”