Greek second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas had to fight hard before booking his place in the Sofia Open quarter-finals, securing a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 win over feisty German Jan-Lennard Struff having enjoyed the backing of the Bulgarian crowd.
"For the first time I play as if I was at home," said 20-year-old Tsitsipas, who reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open last month.
"I felt confident and I hope I will continue to show a good performance. Struff played very well but I was lucky in some of the games and it helped me a lot."
Greece's emerging talent will meet experienced Frenchman Gael Monfils, who defeated Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 7-5 6-3, in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Fernando Verdasco also secured his place in the quarter-finals with 6-2 4-6 6-1 win over Romanian Marius Copil.
Next up for the veteran is Italian Matteo Berrettini, who stunned top seed Karen Khachanov with a three-set win in the second round.
Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev came back from a set down to beat Dutchman Robin Haase 5-7 6-2 6-2 and book his place in the last eight, where he will face Slovakian Martin Klizan who outclassed German qualifier Daniel Brands 7-6(7-5) 6-4.
Marton Fucsovics also made it to the last eight after a 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4 win over another German qualifier - Yannick Maden.
The Hungarian will face fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who won the tournament in 2016.
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