Defending champion Roger Federer survived two match points against Benoit Paire to reach the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7) win on Thursday.
Paire rallied after losing the first set to take the second, and the Frenchman defended two match points at 6-5 in the decider to force a tiebreaker. Eight minutes later, it was a match point for the 48th-ranked Paire, and again when a mistake from Federer left it 7-6 in Paire's favour.
But the top-ranked Swiss took the next three points to close the match in just under two hours at the grass-court tournament.
Federer extended his grass-court winning streak to 18 matches, including his titles in Stuttgart last week and at Halle and Wimbledon last year.
18. Straight. On 🌱<a href="https://twitter.com/rogerfederer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rogerfederer</a> saves 2 match points to defeat Benoit Paire 6-3 3-6 7-6(7) at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GerryWeberOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GerryWeberOpen</a> <br><br>🇨🇭👏 <a href="https://t.co/9f7oYY726R">pic.twitter.com/9f7oYY726R</a>
—@TennisTVFederer skipped the entire clay-court season for the second year in a row and is now just four wins away from matching Jimmy Connors' all-time record of 174 victories on grass.
Federer next faces Matthew Ebden of Australia, who upset former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Also Thursday, Borna Coric defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2.
The Croat next faces either Florian Mayer or Andreas Seppi.
Djokovic through
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic eased past second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov at Queen's Club with a 6-4, 6-1 win on Thursday.
Former top-ranked Djokovic, who accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon warmup tournament, had little trouble against the 2014 champion and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Djokovic won the last of his 12 Grand Slam trophies at the French Open in 2016 and has battled motivation and injury issues, but he looks confident ahead of next month's Wimbledon.
Earlier, Nick Kyrgios sent down 32 aces as the Australian followed up his win over Andy Murray by beating seventh-seeded Kyle Edmund 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-3.
Kyrgios ruined Murray's long-awaited comeback on Tuesday and then sent the current British No. 1 out of the second round.
Kyrgios faced only one break point as he moved into the quarterfinals.
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