Bernard Tomic's Sydney International title defence on track, Matosevic advances

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With father John looking on from the stands, the Australian booked his spot in the final eight with a hard-fought 6-3 4-6 6-4 victory.

Tomic, who is defending an ATP title for the first time in his career, will face Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarters after the Russian stunned Polish second seed Jerzy Janowicz 6-2 6-2.

Janowicz's usually reliable serve let him down as he fired just four aces and racked up five double faults in less than an hour on court.

Meanwhile, Australian wildcard Marinko Matosevic also progressed to the next round with an upset win over third seed Andreas Seppi.

Matosevic delighted the home crowd with a convincing win 6-3 6-4 over Seppi - who will head into the Australian Open having lost his only game on Tour this year.

The Melbourne-based right-hander only allowed his opponent one chance to break serve, and rescued it to underline a fine performance.

Other seeds to fall on Wednesday were Julien Benneteau, beaten 6-3 6-2 by Sergiy Stakhovsky, and Marin Cilic, who slipped up against Denis Istomin 6-3 6-4.

Top seed Juan Martin del Potro and defending champion Bernard Tomic came through, although both were pushed to three sets.

Del Potro recovered from a disappointing opener to beat Nicolas Mahut 1-6 6-3 6-4, and will be keen to improve on a dismal show on his opponent's serve, managing just six points when the Frenchman landed.

Fourth seed Dmitry Tursunov was a 3-6 6-3 6-3 winner over Lukas Rosol and Radek Stepanek overcame Albert Ramos 6-2 7-6 (7-5) in Wednesday's other games.

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