French Open 2020 – Dominic Thiem scrapes into quarters after huge scare from world No. 239

Updated 04/10/2020 at 19:35 GMT

Third seed Dominic Thiem squeaks past world number 239 Hugo Gaston in the French Open fourth round. He will next face Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

Dominic Thiem in Roland-Garros 2020

Image credit: Getty Images

Dominic Thiem survived a memorable fightback from Hugo Gaston to scrape into the French Open quarter-finals after a five-set thriller on a partisan Philippe-Chatrier Court.

The Austrian looked to be cruising into the last eight after taking the first two sets, but an inspired Gaston defied his world ranking of 239 to force a decider and threaten a repeat of his stunning win over 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka.

Ultimately the final set proved a hurdle too far for the Frenchman, who dropped serve at 3-4 before Thiem nervously saw out a 6-4 6-4 5-7 3-6 6-3 win.

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"He's got such a big touch in his hand, his drop shots are from another planet. I must have sprinted 400 times to the net," said Thiem.

"If he continues like this he's gonna be a huge player and give this stadium a lot of joy.

I'm lucky I made it through today.

Thiem will next meet Argentine 12th seed Diego Schwartzman, who maintained his flawless record with a straight sets win over Lorenzo Sonego.

The 27-year-old was branded the “clear favourite” to win the tournament by Eurosport’s Alex Corretja after his impressive third-round victory over Casper Ruud, but he put in a nervous and disjointed display with 63 unforced errors as Gaston bamboozled him with a flurry of drop shots.

He almost gifted Gaston a route back into the deciding set with a double-fault at 30-30 when serving for the match, although he quickly made amends before scraping over the line via deuce.

Thiem is on course to meet 12-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals but he must first take down Schwartzman, who took out Nadal at the recent Italian Open on clay.

'His drop shots are from another planet' - Thiem praises Gaston

'At points I felt he was discouraged' - Noah on Thiem

Former French Open champion Yannick Noah dialled into the Eurosport studio to heap praise on Gaston, while admitting he was surprised at Thiem’s drop in performance.

"Of course, when the game was delicate he [Gaston] missed a couple of drop shots. But that was the only way he had a chance to win. I thought it was beautiful, it was fantastic," said Noah.

"At 4-4 in the third set, I said ‘I feel like Thiem is getting tired’. He wasn’t only tired physically, but mentally too. He likes to play from the baseline, he’s probably the best in the world. But at points I felt he was almost discouraged.

"For Thiem to end up winning this game, it was a great effort."