Rune, the sixth seed, was pushed all the way by the world number 23 Cerundolo, with Rune winning the first set 7-6 on a tie-break.

Cerundolo took set two 6-3 to level the contest, before Rune regained the momentum by taking set three 6-4, which included a controversial incident where umpire Kader Nouni seemed to miss the ball double bouncing on Rune’s side and issued a hindrance call against Cerundolo who had stopped mid-point.

Cerundolo raced through the fourth set 6-1, with Rune calling the training after claiming he felt dizzy, to take the match the distance.

In a thrilling final set the players exchanged breaks of serve, with Rune broken as he attempted to serve out the match, however it was the Dane who held his nerve in the extended tie-break which he took by 10 points to seven.  

He will now face Norway’s Casper Ruud in a repeat of last year’s quarter-final match-up, which Ruud won on the way to the final.

Ruud booked his place in the last eight courtesy of a hard-fought win over Chile’s Nicolas Jarry, the world number 35, with Ruud triumphing 7-6, 7-5, 7-5.

In the night session match, Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the 22^nd seed and a semi-finalist at the last two editions of the French Open, overcame Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

Zverev will face first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Tomas Martin Echeverry of Argentina in the next round, after he overcame Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, the 27^th seed, in straight sets.

Echeverry, the world number 49, claimed the first set on a tie-break 7-6, before racing through the next two 6-0, 6-1, for the loss of just a single game and to continue his record of not yet dropping a set at this year’s tournament.

In the women’s singles draw, a rematch of last year’s final at the last eight stage was secured by wins today for top seed Iga Świątek of Poland and Coco Gauff of the United States.

Defending champion Świątek was leading 5-1 in the first set of her match with Lesia Tsurenko, when the Ukrainian was forced to withdraw due to feeling unwell.

Gauff set up a repeat of last year’s final with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia, ranked 100 in the world.     

Schmiedlova made things tricky for Gauff in the opening set before the 19-year-old started dominating the match to set up a meeting with Świątek.

On a day that featured two marathon matches on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 14^th seed, overcame Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, in a contest that lasted three hours and 51 minutes.

There was little between the two players in a match featuring plenty of gruelling rallies with Sorribes Tormo taking the first set 7-6 on a tie-break.

Haddad Maia battled back and won the next two sets 6-3, 7-5, to take victory in what is now the longest match of the year on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour.

The Brazilian squandered three match points in the ninth game of the final set and was broken while serving for the match, before finally getting over the line.

She will now take on Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the quarter-finals, with the seventh seed requiring just over an hour to ease past Bernarda Pera of the United States 6-3, 6-1.

The men’s and women’s singles quarter-finals are due to begin at Roland Garros tomorrow, with matches including men’s top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the night session, and earlier in the day, women’s second seed Aryna Sabalenka, playing as a neutral, against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.