ATP Challenger Tour's eight-year-old tournament Folkart Izmir Cup's quarters finalists are decided after the top half's completed matches.

Top seed and three-time runner-up world no.84 Marsel Ilhan had a tough day at the office, but managed to find a way to book his last eight place. Ilhan, who started his Izmir campaign with a comfortable win over Yannick Mertens, fought past Ivan Bjelica of Serbia 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Marsel will face Bosnian Mirza Basic whom he has a 0-1 record against. 7th seed Basic also came back from a set down as Ilhan to defeat Croat Matija Pecotic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Other quarter-final match was arranged between Romania's Marius Copil and Uzbekistan's Farrukh Dustov. ATP no.176 Copil was victorious over Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivasha 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in the longest battle of the tournament so far which ended in 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Dustov who had a struggling first round victory despite his illness had no signs of that match at his second exam. 8th seed Dustov was the only straight sets winner of the fourth day, upsetting Aldin Setkic 6-4, 7-6.

Other quarter-final encounters in Izmir will be played between Lukas Lacko-Ramkumar Ramanathan and Malek Jaziri-Aleksandre Metreveli.


Text: Ali Katipoğlu / Photo: Evrim Aydın