Richard Gasquet looks to become the third Frenchman in the Open 13 quarter-finals when he takes on Igor Kunitsyn on Thursday.
The French always excel in their home events, particularly indoors and they already have two players through to the last eight - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Gasquet is seeded fifth this week and he'll be looking to set up a potential quarter-final clash with Rotterdam finalist Juan Martin Del Potro. He started the week strongly, thrashing Go Soeda 6-0, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Soeda did manage to earn seven break points against the Gasquet serve but couldn't convert any and the fifth seed will need to continue to be as ruthless as that on the big points if he's to continue to do well this week.
Kunitsyn is ranked 79 in the world and his first round win here was his first of the indoor season. To his credit, he had landed a couple of tough draws before then, losing to Feliciano Lopez in Montpellier and Mikhail Youzhny in Rotterdam. The Russian finally got some good fortune this week, defeating Spanish qualifier Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 6-4.
They have played just the once before, Gasquet winning 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of Wimbledon last summer.
