THOMAS Brechemier pulled off a giant-killing act yesterday beating second seed Daniel Cox in straight sets to book a place in the quarter-final of the Bahrain International Futures Tennis Championship at the Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair.
The 17-year-old Frenchman, who came through the qualifiers, put up another inspired performance and made a mockery of the rankings.
Brechemier played much better than his ranking of 1,598 to beat Cox of Great Britain, who is ranked 243, 6-3, 7-5 on a cold and rainy day.
The other seeds, by contrast, did not experience much resistance and as expected booked berths in the quarter-finals.
Defending champion and top seed Spaniard Jordi Samper Montanna, with the best world ranking of 234, was impressive in getting past Omar Al Awadhy of the UAE 6-2, 6-4.
Montanna now meets seventh seed Luke Bambridge of Great Britain in the quarter-finals. Bambridge was also equally impressive in beating Bahrain’s Hasan Abdulnabi 6-2, 6-1.
It was a dramatic return to reality for Hasan who a day earlier had made history by becoming the first Bahraini to win an official international ranking after beating his brother and wild card entrant Kareem in the first round.
With Omar and Hasan bowing out of competition the remaining field is filled with Europeans.
In other second round matches, third seed Liam Broady of Great Britain set up a clash with fifth seed Julien Cagnina of Belgium.
Broady beat Christian Hirschmueller of Germany 6-3, 6-0 while Cagnina got past Kevin Griekspoor of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-4.
Clash
In the bottom half, fourth seed Antoine Benneteau of France set up a clash with his compatriot Maxime Tchoutakian. Benneteau beat Simon Tobias of Germany 6-3, 6-4 while Tchoutakian got the better of Matteo Marfia of Italy 6-3, 6-2.
Eighth seed Peter Heller of Germany booked the last quarter-final slot ending the run of wild card entrant Michael Mmoh of the US 6-0, 6-3. Heller takes on Brechemier in the quarter-final.
The championship, which carries a cash prize of $10,000, is being held under the patronage of chairman of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of Bahrain Olympic Committee Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and sponsored by GPIC, Bapco, Bahrain Duty Free and Solidatiry/Takaful Group.
Today’s matches start at 4pm.
Other results:
Men’s doubles (quarter-finals): 1-Liam Broad (GBR) and Joshua Ward-Hibbert (GBR) bt Julien Cagnina (BEL) and Maxime Tchoutakian (FRA) 7-5, 6-4; 3-Kevin Griekspoor (NED) and Scott Griekspoor (NED) bt Rafael Mazon-Hernandez (ESP) and Alberto Santos Bravo (ESP) 6-1, 6-1; 4-Jamie Pulgar-Gracia (ESP) and Javier Pulgar-Garcia (ESP) bt Matias Castro and (ARG) and Viju George (US) 6-0, 6-2; 2-Luke Bambridge (GBR) and Antoine Benneteau (FRA) 6-4, 6-2.