Holger Rune struggled along the way and was clearly frustrated, but the Dane gradually recoved his composure in Paris on Friday afternoon.
Rune delivered a superior performance towards the end and won in five sets with 4-6, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 against Frenchman Quentin Halys in the third round of the French Open.
None of the players gave much away in the first set which was short on baseline duels. Both players held serve until 5-4 in Halys' favor where Rune made a couple of unforced errors as the Frenchman got off to a perfect start.
The first cracks in Halys' game showed at 1-1 in the second set, when Rune promptly punished a couple of poor drop balls and broke to 2-1 thanks to a double fault.
Rune maintained the gap in his own serve, and when he was ahead 4-2, he retrieved an almost impossible drop shot and returned it around the net post. The superb shot helped him break again to make it 5-2 and he subsequently served home the set.
The two players continued to hold serve until 4-4 in the third set after Rune had saved a break point.
Halys lost speed and precision, and Rune exploited this to make 5-4 and put himself in an ideal position to serve home the set.
But the Dane lost the advantage immediately, and the setback caused a frustrated Rune to argue with a spectator, whom he unsuccessfully demanded be removed.
The dispute visibly unravelled Rune who lost concentration as Halys again took command in the game by winning the third set 7-5.
Rune then got off to a good start in the fourth set and broke cleanly to 2-1.
However, the Frenchman broke back immediately, and Rune looked completely discouraged, when Halys easily made it 3-2.
Rune subsequently seemed to give up, while the Frenchman continued to fight hard in all duels.
Trailing 4-5, Rune had to hold serve to avoid defeat, but when Halys just needed two points to win the game, Rune fought his way out of trouble and managed to break Halys' serve to make it 6-5.
With two break points to Halys in the following game, Rune was under pressure, but again Rune produced an impressive comeback despite several poor drop shots.
A great game by Rune allowed him to break the Frenchman to 2-1 in the fifth set, and the Dane made it 3-1 before Halys was able to cut the deficit.
Rune full of confidence then managed to break Halys again and had no trouble serving home the match as Halys had virtually given up.
Rune will now face Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-final.