Down 2-5, 15-40 in fourth, Thiem rallies past underhand-serving Bubilk

If you were watching Naomi Osaka's and Victoria Azarenka's gripping three-setter, or Amanda Anisimova's and Aryna Sabalenka's straightforward two-setter, you missed an interesting four-setter between Dominic Thiem and Alexander Bublik, which had five-setter written all over it.

Thiem, the No. 4 seed at Roland Garros and the oddsmakers' third title favorite behind Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, trailed his tricky Kazakh opponent 2-5, 14-50 in the fourth set. But the 21-year-old gave the Austrian an inch, and Thiem took a mile, rallying to win and avoid a fifth set. Still, it's concerning for Thiem that he's already played two four-set matches before the third round.

In the 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-5 match, Bublik won a battle early on with some creativity—an underhand serve:

"I expected it," Thiem said afterward. "To be honest, it's a good choice against players like us who are that far behind the baseline. There is nothing bad about it. At least he didn't hit an ace, but I think he won two out of three.

"It's sometimes quite a good tactic. Some players do it well, him, Kyrgios. And against these guys you have to be prepared to sometimes make a sprint when you return."

But Thiem would win the war, and after digging out of his fourth-set deficit, he converted his first match point with a touch shot of his own:

"The one on the match point was good," Thiem said about the various drop shots he struck on Thursday. "I was happy that match was over because it was close and so close to a fifth set, which is always difficult."

Thiem's third-round opponent is Pablo Cuevas, one of the more dangerous unseeded players in the draws—and a trick-shot artist himself.