Andy Murray avoided suffering his earliest grand slam defeat for eight years by clawing his way into the French Open third round with a five-set win over swashbuckling French journeyman Mathias Bourgue on Wednesday.
The British second seed, who survived a five-set thriller in the first round, eventually triumphed 6-2 2-6 4-6 6-2 6-3.
Murray appeared to be on course for an easy victory when he was a set and 2-0 up against the 164th-ranked wildcard who had never played a Tour-level match before this week.
But the Scot went into a mid-match meltdown as Bourgue won eight games in a row, including 16 successive points, by torturing his more celebrated rival with a mix of devilish dropshots, flying forehands and venomous volleys.
The 22-year-old Frenchman kept up his antics to take the third set before Murray's survival skills finally kicked in.
After saving three break points in the opening game of the fourth set, which dragged on for 10 minutes, Murray found a way to crack Bourgue's serve for a 3-1 lead and then clung on to secure the victory.
Murray's life is unlikely to get much easier in the next round as he will face 37-year-old big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, the oldest man to reach the third round of a grand slam for 25 years, for a place in the last 16.
Holder Wawrinka picks up pace
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka avoided a repeat on Wednesday of his first-round scare, though he was still made to work hard in a straight-sets win over Japan's Taro Daniel.
The Swiss third seed won 7-6(7) 6-3 6-4 and is now on a six-match winning streak on clay, having warmed-up for Roland Garros by winning the title in Geneva last week.
Progress was by no means straightforward against a skilful opponent ranked 93rd in the world and Wawrinka has yet to switch to his A game. But he says it's there when he needs it.
"If you look at the first two matches, for sure I'm not playing my best tennis, but I know I have my best tennis in me," the 31-year-old Wawrinka, playing in his 45th consecutive grand slam tournament, told reporters.
"I'm happy to get through in three sets. For sure there were some ups and downs, it could have been better, but in general I think it's been a good day."
Twice a grand slam champion, Wawrinka needed five sets to scrape past Lukas Rosol in the opening round and found himself in trouble in the first set against Daniel when he trailed 4-6 in the tiebreaker.
The danger was averted with a sledgehammer groundstroke winner followed by consecutive aces, and he wrapped up the set with an angled smash.
Wawrinka controlled the second set but was a break down in the third before finishing with a flourish to secure a third round clash against French 30th seed Jeremy Chardy.
Nishikori races into third round
Japan's Kei Nishikori maintained his impressive clay-court form to outclass Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3 6-3 6-3 in the second round.
Nishikori, whose only defeats on clay this year came in the Barcelona final against Rafael Nadal and in Madrid and Rome where he was stopped in the semis by Novak Djokovic, will face Spain's Fernando Verdasco in the third round.
Verdasco crushed Croatia's Ivan Dodig.
Former finalist Simona Halep survived a first-set wobble to reach the third round of the French Open for only the second time in her career with a 7-6(5) 6-2 win over Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas
Halep, 24, was 1-4 down in the first set to the world number 90 before rallying and grabbing the tie-break. The opening set featured six breaks of serve before the Romanian coasted through the second.
Halep will next face Japan's Naomi Osaka, the world 101 who has reached the third round at a major for the second successive time having also enjoyed a run to the last 32 in Australia.
Petra Kvitova saw off Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh 6-4, 6-1 in a comfortable fashion. Kvitova, a semi-finalist in 2012, next faces Shelby Rogers of the United States.
Second seed Agnieszka Radwanska took advantage of Caroline Garcia's weak serve to advance into the third round of the French Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory on Wednesday.
The Pole, who will next face Czech 30th seed Barbora Strycova, broke six times as her French opponent looked nothing like the player who won the Strasbourg International last Saturday.
Garcia won a higher percentage of points on her second than on her first serve, which was all too easy to read for Radwanska, who reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in 2013.
Garcia threatened a comeback in the second set after falling 3-0 down, but two successive double faults handed Radwanska her third match point, which she converted as the Frenchwoman mishit a backhand.
