Daniil Medvedev survived a fightback from Maxime Cressy to edge out the American in three-and-a-half hours to move into the last eight of the Australian Open.
The world No2 grew increasingly frustrated at his inability to break Cressy’s serve, crying out “this is my unluckiest day ever” at one point as he spurned opportunity after opportunity in the fourth set.
But he finally found a weakness in the 24-year-old, who had served and volleyed to such good effect for most of the match, to get the break in game 11 and then serve out the contest.
“It was not easy,” said Medvedev afterwards. “The scoreline - only the first set I managed to spring in front of him and win it easy. All the other sets were a tough fight. If I didn’t win the fourth one I would have been in a tough mental place… because I had so many break points.
“I had some break points before this where I could have played a little bit better and not missed the return. But it was a hell of a match.”
The Russian raced to a first-set lead as Cressy, who had never got past the second round of a Grand Slam, started nervously.
But the French-born American found his rhythm to force two tiebreaks, losing the first 7-4 and winning the second by the same scoreline.
Medvedev reacted angrily to the dropped set, remonstrating with the umpire over allowing his opponent too much time between points.
But he eventually kept his nerve to win out the marathon match to set up a quarter-final meeting against Felix Auger-Aliassime, a repeat of their US Open semi-final from last September.
Another one of the favourites for the title in the men’s draw, Stefanos Tsitsipas, had to come through five sets just past midnight in Melbourne to edge out Taylor Fritz in five sets.
The No4 seed fell two sets to one behind but turned both of the final sets at pivotal moments to win 4-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4 and book a quarter-final spot at the Australian Open for the third time in four years.
