MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - Former world number one Marat Safin will face second seed Fernando Gonzalez in Friday's quarter-finals of the ATP tournament in Munich despite the Chilean suffering a second round scare.

Gonzalez recovered from losing the first set 6-1 against Belgium's Kristof Vliegen to win the remaining sets 7-5, 6-3 in the second round tie.

With a host of top names pulling out of the event - including local heros Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber - the clay-court event has been shorn of big names.

Alongside Gonzalez, towering Russian Safin is one of the biggest names left in the tournament, but he had to dig deep to beat Germany's Michael Berrer earlier in the day after the first two sets went to a tie-break.

Having slipped down the ATP rankings to 84th after a long injury break, Safin was given a wildcard entry by the Munich organisers, but is in the last eight after beating Berrer 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

It is a far cry from November 2000 when the 28-year-old was world number one, but he will meet Gonzalez in the quarter-finals on Friday.

There was an upset on Thursday as qualifier Younes El Aynaoui from Morocco beat seventh seed Steve Darcis from Belgium 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

He will face Juan Martin Del Potro for a place in the semi-final after the Argentinian knocked out fourth-seed Russian Igor Andreev.

Having lost first set, Del Potro roared back for a 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 win.

In Friday's other quarter-finals, top seed Paul-Henri Mathieu will play Croatia's Marin Cilic while South Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee will play Italian Simone Bolelli.