After seeing Richard Gasquet knocked out on Tuesday, there were more French exits at the Moselle Open on day three in Metz – including two-time champion Gilles Simon.
Simon - winner in 2010 and 2013 - was expected to come through his second–round match with Peter Gojowczyk but the unseeded German caused a big upset to take his place in the last eight.
A break in the opening game of the match was enough to give Gojowczyk an early lead, and his run would have been made even easier had he not let three break chances slip through his fingers in the fifth.
When he raced into a 4-0 lead at the start of the second set a comprehensive win looked on the carsds, but eighth seed Simon fought back to force a tie-break, only for Gojowczyk to rally to a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win.
Mischa Zverev accounted for Pierre-Hugues Herbert, the fifth seed battling back from a set down to send the Frenchman packing.
Herbert's compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu also suffered a straight-sets loss to world number 113 Henri Laaksonen, the Swiss easing to a 7-5 6-2 triumph.
The only home player to progress on Wednesday was two-time semi-finalist Nicolas Mahut, the veteran seeing off the flamboyant Dustin Brown 6-1 7-6 (7-4).
