An all-Scandinavian French Open quarter-final will take place in the men's singles event following respective wins for Holger Rune and Casper Ruud in Monday's fourth-round matches.
Danish starlet Rune held his nerve in a winner-takes-all tie-breaker with Francisco Cerundolo to defeat the Argentine 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) in three hours and 59 minutes, winning a five-setter for the first time in his fledgling career.
Rune was pegged back twice by a gritty Cerundolo, who broke the world number six while he was serving for the match in the fifth set, and he was not moving at all comfortably during the thrilling encounter.
Despite posting no fewer than 73 unforced errors on the day, Rune saved 13 of the 20 break points he faced and used the motivation from his five-set Australian Open loss to Andrey Rublev - where he squandered two match points - to push himself over the line.
"I had a heartbreaking loss in Australia, where I had this situation. I served for the match and lost and ended up in a Match Tie-break like this, so actually I told myself when we started the Match Tie-break [today] just to relax and play tennis and enjoy [it]," Rune said after his win.
"Moments like this stay with you forever, no matter if you win or lose, you just go and enjoy and try to play your best, so I enjoyed every moment."
The Danish 20-year-old is now gearing up for a quarter-final with Ruud after the Norwegian was given a good run for his money against Nicolas Jarry, but he eventually prevailed 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5.
Jarry fashioned five chances to break Ruud's serve in the opening game, but in a sign of things to come, he failed to convert any of them, and such missed opportunities would cost him dear.
Of the 17 break points he faced, Ruud remarkably managed to save 14 of them, while taking eight of the 13 he brought up on Jarry's serve to edge past the world number 35.
While Cerundolo's run ended in the last eight, there was joy for Argentina in the shape of Tomas Etcheverry, who sunk Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka to reach his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final.
The wind had been knocked out of Nishioka following a tense first-set tie-breaker, as Etcheverry soared to a 7-6(10-8) 6-0 6-1 victory to set up a showdown with Alexander Zverev.
The German 22nd seed's clash with Grigor Dimitrov was the only men's match of the day without a tie-breaker, as Zverev posted a 6-1 6-4 6-3 success to advance to the last eight at Roland-Garros for the fifth time in six years.
In the women's tournament, defending champion Iga Swiatek also progressed to the quarters, as Lesia Tsurenko retired ill from their fourth-round clash with the Pole leading 5-1.
Swiatek now has ample time to recover for her quarter-final with Coco Gauff, who defeated Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5 6-2, while Ons Jabeur eased past Bernarda Pera 6-3 6-1.
Finally, Beatriz Haddad Maia came from a set down to defeat Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-7(3) 6-3 7-5, becoming the first Brazilian to reach the French Open quarters in 55 years. body check tags ::
