Matthieu hopes to build on fine showing

French wild card entry Paul-Henri Mathieu hopes to build on his five-set thriller with Andre Agassi at Roland Garros yesterday and further his fledgling career.

The 20-year-old Mathieu went into the match as a potential whipping boy but far exceeded the expectation of the home crowd at the French Open.

Despite emerging with great credit, Mathieu was a little disappointed not to have claimed the biggest scalp of his young career.

‘‘I am disappointed but what I’ve done is fantastic,’’ he said.

‘‘I had my chance in the fifth set and I think I could have won if I had believed in it more.

‘‘I felt under a lot of pressure, being 20 and playing on centre court, but I managed to control that quite well.

‘‘However, I lacked some experience to score decisive points.

‘‘But I think this week has been successful for me and I hope it will boost me for my future career.

‘‘I have proved to myself that I can hold on to a match and have some consistency.’’

Agassi admitted: ‘‘I was very surprised at Mathieu’s game, he hit his balls incredibly well and had a great flair for the game.

‘‘I really did not expect him to make so many quality shots.’’

Agassi’s relief was evident after he came back from two sets down to scrape into the quarter-finals.

The American showed all his resilience to emerge from a rain break a different player, winning the final three sets to set up a last eight showdown with Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.

‘‘I am happy that I am still here and that I still have a chance in this tournament,’’ Agassi said after his 4-6 3-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 triumph.

‘‘Mathieu dug a big hole for me at the start of the match, I was down two sets and a break, but the good news for me at that point was that it could not get worse.

‘‘And I tried to make it better for me, giving more depths to my shots. I also tried to find a way to hold my serves.’’

Ferrero advanced after a thrilling 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio.

Ferrero, seeded 11, twice came back from a set down to see off Gaudio’s determined challenge and make it into the last eight for the third year in a row.

After wasting two match points on Gaudio’s serve when leading 5-3 in the final set, Ferrero claimed the match in his next service game after an exhausting encounter which lasted 10 minutes shy of four hours.

Sebastien Grosjean made the quarter-finals after a straight sets victory against Belgium’s Xavier Malisse, conqueror in the previous round of Tim Henman.

The 10th seed, who reached the semi-finals last year before going down to clay court expert Alex Corretja, was in total command to delight the home crowd and secure a 6-2 7-5 6-3 triumph in two hours and 33 minutes.