France's top player Arthur Fils reached the third round at the French Open for the first time on Thursday following a five-set thriller with the Spaniard Jaume Munar.
Fils won 7-6, 7-6, 2-6, 0-6, 6-4 after four hours and 25 minutes on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
"I knew that I was going to fight until the end," said Fils. "Maybe sometimes I'm going to lose and sometimes I'm going to but at least I'm fighting and then we see."
Fils, seeded 14th, started to struggle with his movement due to a back injury and cramps after moving into a two set lead.
Munar, playing at the French Open for the eighth time, seized his chance to recover.
The 28-year-old took the third and fourth sets as Fils faltered and went a break up early in the decider.
But the 20-year-old local lad, cheered on by the partisans, levelled and in a game lasting nearly 11 minutes fought off five break points - three of them consecutive - to hold his service for a 5-4 lead.
When Fils clinched the match with a forehand volley, the packed stands roared.
"It was unbelievable," said Fils of the support. "Never felt like this. I played at the Paris Masters in Bercy and for me, Bercy was the best atmosphere. But now that I played this one, it's unbelievable.
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"The crowd really pushed me to win this match, because I think if we are playing in Asia or whatever, I'm not very sure that I could, first of all, finish the match. And to win it, almost zero percent of chances."
Fils will play the 17th seed Andrey Rublev on Saturday after the Russian disposed of the world number 91 Adam Walton in straight sets.
Elsewhere in the men's draw, last year's beaten finalist Alexander Zverev came from a set down to sweep past Jesper de Jong 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in just under three hours.
"In the beginning I didn't play my best," said Zverev. "I went down 3-0 quite quickly as he started off very, very fast, and I never found the way back in the first set.
"But then from the second set onwards I thought my level got better. And I'm happy with my level from then onwards."
The 28-year-old German will play Flavio Cobolli who won the Hamburg Open in the week before the start of the French Open.
The 23-year-old advanced to the third round for the first time following a four-set win over his fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
Rising star Joao Fonseca also progressed to the last-32 for the first time. The 18-year-old Brazilian saw off the French veteran Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 and will meet either the fifth seed Jack Draper or another Frenchman Gael Monfils for a place in the last-16.
Sleep
There was a surprise as ninth seed Alex De Minaur went down to Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan in five sets.
De Minaur, who reached the quarter-finals last year, won the first two sets but Bublik surged back to book a spot in the third round for the first time in seven visits to the French Open.
"There's no secret to the recovery," said the 27-year-old. "I just continued playing. I had few chances that I used. Then it was a bit of a momentum shift.
"It was a bit early for me as 11am is not my best time. I was a bit sleepy in the first two sets so it was a key to wake up and then to play one of the best slam matches that I ever played in my life."
