Second seed Daniil Medvedev continued the defence of his Paris Masters title on Friday night with a gutsy straight sets victory over the local hero Hugo Gaston.
It finished 7-6, 6-4 to the Russian who saved three set points in the first set when the 21-year-old Frenchman served for the opener.
That profligacy came back to haunt him in the tiebreak. He lost it nine points to seven after himself saving three set points.
Medvedev, who won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open in September, raced into a 4-0 lead in the second set.
But to the raucous delight of the partisans, Gaston did not roll over.
Fightback
He recovered to 4-3 as the packed stands cheered every winner from the Frenchman and - unsportingly - every mistake from Medvedev.
The 25-year-old Russian held for 5-3 with some brutal serving including two aces.
After 94 minutes of lavish and vocal chauvinism, Gaston served to stay in the quarter-final. He succeeded.
A Medvedev double fault on match point brought more cheers.
But he soon fashioned another match point and coolly waited for the chanting to subside before unleashing another huge serve.
It was followed by a cross court forehand winner. Au revoir, Hugo.
"It was a great match with lots of great points," said Medvedev in perfect French.
He added mischievously: "It was to be expected that the crowd would be against me - I'm not French."
Touché.
