Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has reached the quarter-finals at the French Open for the first time after a five-set success over two days against Stanislas Wawrinka.
Tsonga started well and put Wawrinka on the back foot immediately as the Swiss number two failed to find consistency with his serves.
Wawrinka gifted the home favourite a break of serve and Tsonga then quickly wrapped up the first set 6-4.
The second proved to be a much tighter affair and Wawrinka finally managed to find his feet on the Philippe Chatrier Court and forced the set into a tie-break.
Tsonga was pushed hard in the second set decider but did manage to find the crucial breakthrough to take the tie-break 8-6 and go two sets up.
Wawrinka continued to improve as the quality of Tsonga's tennis declined and the Frenchman failed to match his opponents intensity allowing Wawrinka to pull a set back.
The fourth set was a one-sided affair as Wawrinka managed to break Tsonga twice early on to race into a comfortable lead.
Despite a late comeback, Wawrinka managed to hold on to level the match at 2-2.
The deciding set started in an understandably cagey way with neither player risking too much and the French crowd being entertained by a number of long rallies.
Tsonga managed to break Wawrinka in the fourth game before holding a particularly difficult service game to give himself a 4-1 lead as play was postponed for bad light.
Upon the resumption this afternoon, the fans on Philippe Chatrier were left disappointed when Wawrinka broke straight back.
Both men then held serve as Tsonga moved within a game of the match at 5-4.
Wawrinka was under pressure on second serve at 30-30 and he sent a backhand wide to hand Tsonga a match point.
The Frenchman's return was feeble though and Wawrinka sent an unreturnable forehand into the corner to level the game at deuce.
On the third deuce Tsonga found an exquisite low backhand pass to set up a second match point. Wawrinka again offered up a second serve and this time Tsonga made no mistake to take victory.
The 27-year-old will face world number one Novak Djokovic in the last eight.
