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Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga opened the defence of his Thailand Open crown with a tricky 6-7 7-6 7-6 win over Latvian Ernests Gulbis to reach the quarter-finals in Bangkok.

The Frenchman had to win two tie-breaks to get past the Latvian in a tense two-hour 12-minute match, his first outing in the $608,500 tournament.

Big serves dominated the match, with Tsonga firing 20 aces to Gulbis's 23 in a closely fought encounter that the Latvian was unlucky to lose.

Gilles Simon of France tested his chronic sore knee in a 6-2 6-2 win over American Kevin Kim to reach the quarter-finals.

But retiring Russian Marat Safin suffered another loss as he winds down his career, falling 6-3 7-6(4) to qualifier Marco Chiudinelli with the Swiss man next facing Tsonga.

While striking 11 aces to advance easily in 61 minutes, number 10-ranked Simon admitted that he is concerned about just getting through the last two months of a long and gruelling ATP season.

"I'm happy with how I played today. I needed this match as a test of how I'm doing," said Simon, making his Bangkok debut aged 24. "I know that I can play well on this slow court.

"But whether I can do that or not depends on my knee. The doctors say that it needs to rest."

Safin meanwhile insisted that his loss to Chuidinelli had hurt despite the fact he will retire after next month's Paris Masters.

"I'm a little disappointed. It should have gone the other way," said the said the 29-year-old two-times Grand Slam champion. "I missed a volley and then let it slip away.

"I may be retiring, but I still want to win. I don't want to give away any matches. I really hate to lose."

Safin had been trying to reach only his second quarter-final of the year after Los Angeles.

German Andreas Beck spoiled the good luck of Donald Young 6-1 6-7(3) 6-4, defeating the American who got into the draw when compatriot Sam Querrey cut his arm due to a collapsing glass coffee table at the tournament.

Eighth seed John Isner beat Germany's Mischa Zverev 7-6(5) 6-4, with the American growing quickly accustomed to conditions on his first trip to Asia.

"I'm very satisfied to go through," said the 24 year-old ranked 48th, who struggled past Thai teenager, Kittipong Wachiramanowong, in the opening round.

"I feel comfortable on the court and I've gotten used to the time change. At least I'm not falling asleep in the locker room like I did the first few days here.

"This is a slow court but I like it just fine. I feel I can serve through any court. The surface just gives me more time to prepare my shots."

Simon, who will face either Russian Evgeny Korolev or American Robby Ginepri in the quarter-finals, said that he remains concerned about his problem knee.

"I had a scan after the US Open and while it's still painful, it's going in a good way," he said. "The scan was better than the one I had after Roland Garros.

"I really need a lot of recovery after my matches. It's a lot of icing and rest. Everything depends on my knee."

Reuters / AFP