Clay court tennis has never come easy for silky Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and his struggle to master the dirt was evident again in a four-hour dogfight with Jared Donaldson in the French Open second round on Wednesday.
Try as he could on a sun-baked Court 18, fourth seed Dimitrov could never tame the 57th-ranked American youngster but he eventually prevailed 6-7 6-4 4-6 6-4 10-8 to collect the 50th Grand Slam win of his career.
Twice he needed to serve to stay in the match in the deciding set before breaking a cramping Donaldson to love in the 15th game, only to drop serve immediately.
Dimitrov broke again, though, at 9-9 and at the second time of asking he brought up match point with his 17th ace and sealed victory with a hefty first serve.
It is only the third time the 27-year-old has reached the third round at Roland Garros in eight attempts and he has never gone further – a surprisingly poor record for a player blessed with such a wide range of weapons.
Things will not get any easier if Dimitrov is to break new ground with Spaniard Fernando Verdasco next up.
Donaldson did little wrong and was 0-30 when Dimitrov served at 5-6 in the decider, only for the Bulgarian to unleash a succession of winners to stay alive.
The 21-year-old served an underarm second serve to hold serve in the next game as he was clearly struggling physically but Dimitrov eventually scrambled over the line.
Alexander Zverev meanwhile eventually controlled his nerves to reach the third round with a 2-6 7-5 4-6 6-1 6-2 win over Serbian Dusan Lajovic.
The second-seeded German smashed a racket in frustration before finding his groove and setting up a meeting with 26th-seeded Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.
Zverev has yet to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam but his huge talent told in the end against the world number 60.
The 21-year-old Zverev had to cope with the frustration of an error-riddled start of the match.
He dropped serve twice in the opening set as Lajovic kept his cool and held serve to take the lead on Court One.
Lajovic toyed with the German, who lost his temper when he was broken in the third game of the second set and crushed his racket in frustration.
Horrible unforced errors and ill-timed rushes to the net followed as Zverev struggled for control but he broke back for 3-3 and regained his composure to convert his first set point on Lajovic’s serve to level the match.
There were more jitters, though, as he trailed 2-1 in the third when he dropped serve on a double fault. Lajovic went on to bag the set and Zverev had his back to the wall.
But the German, who leads the ATP Race, was fully focused as he raced through the fourth set by sticking closer to the baseline and he ended the match with an unreturnable serve.