Defending champion Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga faced few obstacles en route to reaching the Open Sud de France quarter-finals.

Gasquet has a superb record in Montpellier having won the tournament three of the past four years and the third seed needed less than an hour and 20 minutes to beat Malek Jaziri 7-5 6-2.

Gasquet faced a few nervy moments as he swatted away five of the seven break-points he faced, but was clinical on Jaziri's serve.

Tsonga, seeded second, was completely dominant as he battered Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-1 6-2 in just 46 minutes.

There was double disappointment for Spain as Feliciano Lopez (5) and Fernando Verdasco (8) were beaten. Benoit Paire, Lopez's conqueror, was joined by fellow Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Kenny De Schepper in reaching the last eight, while Alexander Zverev, seeded fourth, needed three sets to defeat Aljaz Bedene.

At the Sofia Open, there was a shock as top seed Dominic Thiem crashed out to Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 6-4, despite being ranked 79 places higher in the world rankings.

Third seed and home favourite Grigor Dimitrov - an Australian Open semi-finalist - almost suffered a similar fate but fought back to beat Jerzy Janowicz 4-6 6-3 7-5 to make the last eight.

Gilles Muller (5), Viktor Troicki (9) - a runner-up 12 months ago - and Martin Klizan (8) are also through to the quarter-finals.