Tsonga battles into Lyon quarters

Former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied past Canadian qualifier Steven Diez on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals and extend his perfect record at the Lyon Open.

Tsonga, the 2017 champion, came within two points of losing but finally prevailed 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 on his sixth match point after two hours, 42 minutes.

Tsonga will next take on top-seed and world No.18 Nikoloz Basilashvili, who beat lucky loser Tristan Lamasine 7-5 7-5.

Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut beat another home player, Corentin Moutet 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Third seed Denis Shapovalov came within two points of losing before fighting back to beat Ugo Humbert of France 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2.

The Canadian lost the first set and was 5-4 down in the second but rallied to snatch it on a tie-break and went on to win in two hours 16 minutes.