PARIS (AP): Fabio Fognini of Italy overcame a cramping left leg and five match points to outlast Albert Montanes of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 Sunday at the French Open, reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final.
The match lasted 4 hours, 22 minutes, and by the end, the 49th-ranked Fognini barely could move. His left thigh was massaged and wrapped during a series of visits from a trainer in the final set, including when play was halted in the middle of the 14th game.
The 38th-ranked Montanes was broken while serving for the match at 5-3 in the fifth, and he later failed to convert match points on Fognini's serve at 8-7 and at 9-8. Fognini broke Montanes to lead 10-9, then served out the victory, closing it with a backhand winner.
Earlier, while trailing 7-6 and serving at 15-30 - with Montanes two points from victory - Fognini winced in pain at the baseline after hitting a serve and clutched at his left leg. He called for the trainer and sat down in his changeover chair.
When action resumed, Fognini won three points in a row to hold serve for 7-all. During several points the rest of the way, Fognini essentially stood in place on court, immobile, yet somehow would win exchanges with a winner or when Montanes would make an unforced error.
The 24-year-old Fognini is Italy's first man in the French Open quarterfinals since 1995, and first to make it this far at any major tournament since 1998.
Montanes was trying to reach the first Grand Slam quarter-final of his career at age 30, and he'd won his last six matches that went five sets. All five of his career titles have come on clay, the surface used at Roland Garros.
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