Australians Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic took similar paths to the quarter-finals of the ATP Tour event in Munich on Thursday.
Both dominated their opening sets, lost the middle tiebreakers and recovered in the third.
The fifth-seeded Tomic beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-1 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 to make his first career quarter-final on clay. Tomic was down a break of serve at the start of the final set before coming back.
Matosevic defeated fellow qualifier Robert Farah of Colombia 6-1 6-7 (2-7) 6-2. Matosevic is playing his first career tournament on clay.