Vienna - Second-seeded Tommy Haas has reached his 12th quarter-final of the season by defeating Miloslav Mecir of Slovakia 7-5, 7-6 (8) at the Erste Bank Open on Thursday.
Playing in his first ATP event, Mecir missed three set points in the opening set and two in the second.
The 12th-ranked Haas, who won the event in 2001, next plays fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek.
Also, Robin Haase of the Netherlands missed a second-set match point against seventh-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada before closing out a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-2 win.
Haase lined up third-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy, who defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland 7-5, 6-2.
Fognini failed to serve out the opening set at 5-4 but won eight of the next 10 games to reach his 10th quarter-final of the year.
Results on the fourth day of the Austrian Open on Thursday (x denotes seeding):
Second round:
Fabio Fognini (ITA x3) bt Lukasz Kubot (POL) 7-5, 6-2
Robin Haase (NED) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN x7) 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (5/7), 6-2
Tommy Haas (GER x2) bt Miloslav Mecir Jr. (SVK) 7-5, 7-6 (10/8