Zverev roars into first French Open quarter-final

Second seed Alex Zverev reached his first Grand Slam singles quarter final on Sunday with a grueling five set victory over the unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov.

Alex Zverev reached the last eight at the French Open for the first time on Sunday. Reuters/Christian Hartmann

For the third match in a row at the 2018 French Open, the 21-year-old trailed two sets to one.

And for the third consecutive match, he held his nerve in the tight moments to complete his comebacks.

"In two days I will be playing in the quarter-finals here and I'm happy about that," he said. “But I hope I can win more matches here. I hope this is not the end here.

"Physically, obviously it's not easy to play back-to-back-to-back five-set matches. But I will manage it somehow. I will do everything."

Zverev, the world number three, is seeded second in Paris following the decision of world number two Roger Federer not to participate in this year’s tournament.

He is seen as one of the threats to Rafael Nadal's bid for an 11th title. “Right now, Rafa and Roger are dominating but the younger players are doing everything we can to change that.

"I think us young players all are improving quite quickly and I think we are all trying to get better. I'm top three in the world now. I think other young guys are coming up strong. I think in the end we'll be very high soon.

"With time we will see who can become the next Grand Slam champion and who can become the next world number one.”

Zverev will take on seventh seed Dominic Thiem in Tuesday’s quarter-final. He will go into the clash with the bragging rights. Zverev beat the Austrian to claim the Madrid Masters in May.