Tommy Haas is hoping he can find ways to unsettle Gael Monfils in a marquee last eight match-up in Auckland that wouldn’t disgrace a grand slam quarter-final.

The vagaries of the Auckland Open draw means the third seed Haas, a former world number two, will play the French former world number seven Monfils, after injuries last year to the Frenchman saw his ranking plummet to 99.

Both were easy second round winners over qualifiers on Wednesday, Haas dispatching Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-3 6-4, while Monfils, in the tournament courtesy of a wildcard, comfortably accounted for Australia’s Greg Jones 6-4 6-2.

Monfils has the game to match most players but can be erratic and Haas hopes he can find ways to put him off his game.

“You try to get a player sometimes frustrated and get to a point of maybe thinking too much, and also as an opponent play a certain game where they don’t know what’s coming next,” Haas said.

“It’s not something I definitely look for, but hopefully I get a few moments where he might panic a little bit.”

Haas says Monfils will be keen to prove himself after his injury layoff and has the game to do it.

“It’s going to come down to who’s going to be better under the pressure, who plays the bigger points a bit better.”

Haas and Monfils play the night game at the Auckland tennis arena but the top three seeds should provide plenty of quality tennis in the earlier matches.

Second seed Philipp Kohlschreiber starts proceedings against Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse, and then the big-serving fourth seed American Sam Querrey takes on Canada’s Jesse Levine, an opponent he knows well from his age-group days 10 years ago.

Following them, top seed David Ferrer faces his next challenge in his quest to win a fourth Auckland title against Slovakian Lukas Lacko, who knocked eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci out on Wednesday.