Second seed Alexander Zverev was forced to save a match point before beating Damir Dzumhur in five sets to reach the fourth round of the French Open. The German was given all sorts of problems by the world number 29 from Bosnia-Herzegovina before winning 6-2 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5.
It is a second five-set win in a row for the 21-year-old. But the fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov is out after losing to veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. The Bulgarian was beaten 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4 by the 34-year-old 30th seed, who will face Novak Djokovic in the last 16.
"You have to draw the line and look for the next chapter," said Dimitrov, who has failed to make the second week at Roland Garros in eight attempts. In tennis you never know, one week can always turn things around for you. It's been proven to work in the past."
Zverev, who is into the last 16 for the first time, showed a worrying lack of consistency against Dzumhur, hitting 73 unforced errors, dropping his serve eight times and serving seven double faults,
Dzumhur served for the match at 6-5 up in the fourth set but was broken to love and Zverev kept the match alive by winning the tie-break.
In a drama-filled match, the German led 4-2 in the fifth set only for his opponent to break back and then go 5-4 up.
The pressure was on Zverev and he had to save the match point on his own serve before making it 5-5.
The scare seemed to inspire him and he broke his opponent one more time before serving out for the win.
"It was an amazing, high level match," said Zverev, who is bidding to become the first German men's champion in Paris since 1937.
"He served for the match and I had to save lots of break points in the fourth and fifth sets. Sometimes you have to battle to get the win and that's what I did today."
