French Open | ‘Almost s**t in my pants’: Flavio Cobolli after securing win against Zachary Svajda

Flavio Cobolli after winning a point against Zachary Svajda in Paris on Monday. Pics/AFP

Flavio Cobolli said he made the mistake of "thinking" before he steadied on Monday and clawed into the French Open quarter-finals, beating Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5).

Cobolli raced through the first two sets in a total of one hour 25 minutes, breaking twice in each.

Then he wobbled once to surrender the third set and, leading 5-1 and with a match point, wobbled again in the fourth before surging through the tiebreak.

Brazil's Joao Fonseca during his win over Norway's Casper Ruud

"The match is never done and today I almost s''t in my pants," said Cobolli on court immediately after the match.

He offered a more analytical response at his later press conference. "I think when the match is almost done, you start to think of it, and that's the problem with my character, because I don't like to think a bit," he said.

"I just want to play, play my best tennis possible. But if I think, especially if I'm nervous, I start to play a different tennis."

At No. 10, the Italian goes into the last eight as the third-highest remaining men's seed. It will be the 24-year-old's second Grand Slam quarter-final. He reached the last eight at Wimbledon last season.

Cobolli will face either fourth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or unseeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.

Meanwhile, Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca clinched a dramatic four-set triumph against Casper Ruud in the French Open last 16, backing up his win over Novak Djokovic in style. The 19-year-old powered his way to a 7-5, 7-6 (10/8), 5-7, 6-2 win in the night match on Sunday to reach his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final. "It was tough, Casper plays good here, he's a very experienced guy and he knows how to play here on this court," said Fonseca, who hit 51 winners in another exciting display.

"It was tough in the beginning but I played well in the important moments in the first and second sets."

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