Hamburg, Germany, 22 July 2011 | AP

Top-seeded Gael Monfils of France beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the German Open on Thursday.

Monfils fell behind 2-0 to start the match but rallied to win four straight games.

Monfils broke Stepanek’s serve three times to set up a quarter-final showdown with fellow Frenchman and fifth-seeded Gilles Simon.

Simon outlasted Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-4 to reach the quarters in Hamburg for the first time in six attempts.

Second-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria advanced by beating 15th-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2 6-3.

Melzer, who was runner-up in Hamburg last year, never faced a break point.

The Austrian will next face eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who beat German wildcard Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 7-5 6-2.

Third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 7-5 and will next meet another German, sixth-seeded Florian Mayer, who beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-5 7-5.

Fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia beat German wildcard Julian Reister 6-3 6-3 and will next face No.12 Marin Cilic of Croatia.

Cilic rallied to beat wildcard Tobias Kamke of Germany 3-6 6-3 6-2.