Jurgen Melzer takes on Dmitry Tursunov in the featured night match on Friday in Marseille.
Tursunov has been gradually making his comeback from several serious ankle injuries over the past year but after picking up bucketfuls of points in challengers, the Russian's quest is gradually gathering momentum and he scored a very notable 7-6, 6-3 win over Ivan Ljubicic on Thursday.
Melzer had a solid 7-5, 6-3 win over Bergamo challenger champion Andreas Seppi in the second round and the Austrian will be fearing a repeat of last week, when he was outgunned in straight sets by the brutal hitting of Marin Cilic in Rotterdam.
Tursunov is a player in a similar mould and this one will all be about first strike tennis. If Melzer can begin to extend the Russian into some longer rallies then he will be strong favourite as the better athlete of the two. However that will not be so easy on a very fast indoor surface.
The previous encounters between these two have always gone right down to the wire. They played at last year's US Open and Melzer was pushed all the way before eventually prevailing 6-2 in the fifth.
