Mathieu leads winners at Metz tennis event

METZ, France, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Crowd favorite Paul-Henri Mathieu led Thursday's second-round winners at the Open de Moselle tennis tournament in Metz, France.

The native of Strasbourg, France, the tournament's fourth seed, subdued fellow Frenchman Romain Jouan 6-3, 6-3, in a match watched by a split fan base.

Mathieu will face Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in a Friday quarterfinal.

Tipsarevic was a 6-4, 6-4 winner against Ernests Gulbis in a second-round match on Wednesday.

Elsewhere Thursday, No. 7 seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic outlasted Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-0); Frenchman Adrian Mannarino topped South African Rik De Voest 6-4, 7-5; France's Marc Gicquel saved three set points in the second set on the way to a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory against compatriot Nicolas Mahut; and 20-yea-old Eduardo Schwank of Argentina, playing in just his second tournament as a professional, recorded a 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 win over Romanian Victor Hanescu.