IT was a day of favourites progressing through to the Round of 16 at Roland Garros with the likes of Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev making no mistake against their unseeded opponents in their respective matches. Meanwhile, Dominic Thiem also inflicted pain against his Norwegian counterpart to edge himself closer to another title.

Although the favourites were making it look easy, last Frenchman standing Hugo Gaston took it upon himself to keep the French faithful happy in one of the biggest upsets of the day. The 20-year-old hailing from Toulouse pushed Swiss star Stan Wawrinka to his limits, matching him for intensity and court coverage to walk away with the chocolates in a gruelling five setter 2-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-0.

“I tried to play my game, but I didn’t know I could do it – until I won,” Gaston said. “Every time I go on court I try to concentrate and play my game. I am grateful of the support I had and in two days’ time I will play [Dominic] Thiem. I have nothing to lose.”

With the match on pause for over two hours midway through the third set due to rain, Gaston came out with a real hunger and intensity against the 16^th seed. Although Wawrinka won the battle when it came to winners, hitting 49 as opposed to Gaston’s 35, his lack of discipline allowed the youngster to capitalise, with Wawrinka registering 33 more unforced errors (74-31).

Wawrinka was strong on the serve as per usual dishing up seven aces to his opponent’s two but his overall accuracy on the first serve was down at 60 per cent compares to Gaston’s marginally better 63 per cent. Currently ranked at world number 239, Gaston holds the title for the lowest ranked player left in the tournament heading into the final 16 since 2002, showcasing just how big of a win this was for the up and coming Frenchman who is set to take on Thiem next round.

Speaking of Thiem, the Austrian made light work of his opponent Casper Ruud getting the job done in two hours and 15 minutes such was his dominance for the 6-4 6-3 6-1 win.

“He was playing well from beginning to the end,” Thiem said. “I really raised my level. Maybe the first four games were not as good as the rest of the match by me, but he’s a really good player, especially on clay, probably one of the best of the season.”

Thiem capitalised on most areas, particularly the first serve sitting at a 67 per cent winning rate while Ruud languished at 51 per cent. The experience of Thiem was on show throughout the battle as the world number three only made 28 unforced errors compared to 37 while his ability to finish off points was on show hitting 32 winners.

In other results, The quickest match of the round saw Nadal move through to the next stage in just over an hour and a half as he dominated Italian Stefano Travaglia 6-1 6-4 6-0 while Zverev was next fastest taking care of Marco Cecchinato in three sets 6-1 7-5 6-3. Others that progressed through to the next stage consisted of Diego Schwartzman, Jannik Sinner and American youngster Sebastian Korda. Lorenzo Sonego fought gallantly against Taylor Fritz, edging the American out of contention with a 7-6 6-3 7-6 victory.