Doha was already missing Maria Sharapova, who is doing broadcasting work in Sochi, but the draw will now also be missing Victoria Azarenka who has pulled out with a foot injury and seems unlikely to make an appearance on tour before Indian Wells next month.  Sabine Lisicki is also out and Petra Kvitova remains a doubt through illness.  Here are some predictions for Friday’s quarter-finals in Zagreb, Montpellier and Vina del Mar.

Daniel Evans v Philipp Kohlschreiber (ATP Zagreb, QF)

Philipp Kohlschreiber

It has been a great week for the British men as James Ward and Andy Murray helped secure GB’s place in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup last weekend and now Daniel Evans has made his first ATP quarter-final in Zagreb.  Evans lost in the last round of qualifying to Bjorn Phau (who has also made the quarters), but got in as a lucky loser when Radek Stepanek pulled out with injury.  He beat Jan Hajek in the first round and on Thursday, edged out Michael Berrer in a third set tiebreak.  It was a brilliant win after losing the opening set, 6-1 and winning just six points.

I saw an article on BBC Sport today where they wrote after his first round victory “British number two Dan Evans put a disappointing start to 2014 behind him…”.  I think that is a pretty unfair statement to make because before his run at the US Open last year, nothing much was expected of Evans.  Granted, he did have a poor loss in Australian Open qualifying, but he came through three matches in Doha qualifying and took a set off Ernests Gulbis in the first round.  There are encouraging signs that Evans is maintaining the improvement he showed at Flushing Meadows last year in his mentality and dedication to the sport.  His ranking means that he will have to qualify for all these events, but hopefully, he should be knocking on the door of the top 100 soon and gaining direct entry into events like Zagreb.

Evans will take on Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals; in my opinion, Kohlschreiber is a really excellent tennis player, but has never reached his potential mainly down to his lack of intensity on the court.  He reminds me very much of Carla Suarez Navarro on the WTA tour.  Kohlschreiber beat Andrey Golubev in the second round, 6-4 6-2.  Evans has done really well this week, but I would be very surprised if he could play consistently well enough to take out Kohlschreiber.

Prediction: Kohlschreiber to beat Evans in 2 tight sets

ATP Montpellier Quarter-Final Predictions

Jarkko Nieminen to beat Marc Gicquel in 2 sets

Gael Monfils to beat Denis Istomin in 3 sets

Richard Gasquet to beat Albano Olivetti in 2 sets

ATP Zagreb Quarter-Final Predictions

Dudi Sela to beat Bjorn Phau in 2 sets

Ivan Dodig to beat Marin Cilic in 3 sets

Tommy Haas to beat Andrey Kuznetsov in 2 sets

ATP Vina del Mar Quarter-Final Predictions

Nicolas Almagro to beat Taro Daniel in 2 sets

Santiago Giraldo to beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in 3 sets

Leonardo Mayer to beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver in 2 sets