The French Open defending champion Gaston Gaudio and runner-up Guillermo Coria, both from Argentina, were ousted on Monday after gruelling battles in their respective French Open fouth round matches.
Spain's Rafael Nadal silenced a partisan crowd with a 6-4 3-6 6-0 6-3 win over French number one Sebastien Grosjean on Monday to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open.
Gaudio was beaten by David Ferrer, the resilient Spaniard showing more composure when it mattered to win 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in a match that lasted for four hours and five minutes.
Ferrer, who had trailed 4-0 in the fifth set, will meet compatriot Nadal next after the brawny 18-year-old beat Grosjean 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
"I knew I could come back," Ferrer said. "In the end I just let my shots go and everything worked out.
"That's what tennis is all about. Anything can happen. Until the end of the match, you can't really say it's done."
Fifth seed Gaudio, who had not dropped a set on his way to the last 16, had his chances in a tight contest that could have gone either way. He bowed out by hitting a forehand long after four hours five minutes.
Ferrer, seeded 20th, will meet compatriot Rafael Nadal for a place in the semi-finals.
Gaudio had won all four of their meetings before Ferrer beat him on his way to the semi-finals three weeks ago in Rome.
Coria lost to Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(1), 6-2 in just above three hours. Coria, one of the favourites to win the crown, looked jaded in the last set after taking the third to a tie-breaker.
The improving Russian's victory over Coria propelled him into the quarter-finals for the second straight Grand Slam after his run in Melbourne in January.
His earlier best at Roland Garros was a second round entry.
The third Argentine in the fray, Guillermo Canas qualified for the quarter-finals of the French Open without playing on Monday when his opponent, German Nicolas Kiefer, pulled out with a sore neck.
Kiefer, the 28th seed, was hampered by the injury in the fourth round when he took four sets to move past Russia's Igor Andreev.
Nadal, who has collected five titles this year, extended his winning streak on clay to 21 matches. Each player had won a set and the 18-year-old was leading 3-0 in the third when rain interrupted the contest on Sunday.
The gifted left-hander, trying to become the first man to win Roland Garros on debut since Swede Mats Wilander in 1982, meets compatriot David Ferrer for a place in the semi-finals.
The crowd had halted play for nine minutes early in the second set of Nadal's match on Sunday, booing and jeering over a controversial line call and getting louder every time the Spaniard tried to resume playing.
The fans behaved on Monday and witnessed more great tennis from the Spanish prodigy who won the first three games to wrap up the third set.
The fourth set featured thrilling rallies and was tight until Grosjean dropped serve by netting a backhand in the eighth game.
Nadal served for the match and Grosjean bowed out by hitting a backhand wide on the second match point.