MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - Top seed Paul-Henri Mathieu safely made it into the quarter-finals at the ATP tournament in Munich on a day of few surprises as former world number one Marat Safin made the second round.

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.

Mathieu, ranked 19th in the world, had a comfortable straight sets win over Italian qualifier Gianluca Naso 6-3, 6-4 in the second round and will face eighth seed Marin Cilic in the last eight.

The Croat beat Germany's Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) earlier in the day in their second round tussle.

Having slipped down the ATP rankings to 84th after a long injury break, Safin was given a wildcard entry by the Munich organisers and dropped a set as he beat Argentina's Carlos Berlocq, ranked 91st, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round.

It is a far cry from November 2000 when the 28-year-old was world number one, but he is on course to meet second seed Fernando Gonzalez from Chile in the quarter-finals, if he beats Germany's Michael Berrer in the second round.

At the start of the day, seventh-seed Steve Darcis from Belgium had few problems in despatching Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets in the first round.

The only shock of the day was when Italian Simone Bolelli dumped out compatriot and eighth seed Andreas Seppi in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 in the final singles match of the day in the second round.

Bolelli will play South Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee in the quarter-finals after he beat Brazil's Julio Silva 6-1, 6-4 in the second round.