Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who took down world No. 5 Kei Nishikori in Paris on Sunday, said after the match that fans were incredibly pumped up and he felt he played very well.
Gasquet beat Nishikori, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, in the fourth round to reach the French Open quarterfinals for the first time in his career.
The 29-year-old said he benefited from a rain break in the first set—when coach Sergi Bruguera gave him a resounding talk—and the backing of the crowd during play.
The former Top 10 player, who has frequently choked in front of the French crowds at Roland Garros, did experience nerves at times.
“Shut your traps!” Gasquet said at one point in the match.
But following the match, he acknowledged that the cheers helped him.
"I really took pleasure playing at Roland Garros with the public," Gasquet said. "...The public put me under pressure for the whole game. It did me loads of good. This is the biggest court in the world for a French player.”
Gasquet is now 7-2 versus Nishikori. Though the Japanese player beat the Frenchman in straight sets in Madrid and Rome, Gasquet was much more direct in this match, and he attacked.
"I'm very, very happy to have won,” the No. 9 seed said, “and [to have] played like that."
He will face world No. 2 Andy Murray on Tuesday. Murray is 7-3 versus Gasquet, and has beat him the last five times the two have met.
The Scot defeated Gasquet in the fourth round of the 2012 French Open in four sets. In 2015, on hard courts, Murray bested Gasquet in Cincinnati and at the Paris Masters.