German second seed Alexander Zverev has beaten Damir Dzumhur in a five-set thriller to reach the fourth round of the French Open on Friday.

The 21-year-old German overcame a lack of consistency during the game and saved a match point to beat the 29th seed 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Zverev is a dark horse in the tournament, fresh from his stunning performance at the Rome Masters, defeating former world No.1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets before losing to Rafael Nadal in the final.

But the young star played an imperfect game against Dzumhur, hitting 73 unforced errors, dropping his serve eight times and serving seven double faults.

Despite being the second seed at Roland Garros, the German is yet to make it to the fifth round of a glam slam tournament.

“I’m trying to win matches,” a defensive Zverev said at a post-match press conference.

“If it takes me three sets, great. If it takes me five sets, that’s also great. But I’m trying to win. That’s all that matters.

“It doesn’t matter how long it goes. It doesn’t matter how much time I’ll spend on court. It doesn’t matter if it goes 9-7 in the fifth or it goes 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. For me is the same. Now I’m in the next round and that’s all that matters.”

Poor ball boy 🙁#FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/72m8md6r9z

— Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) June 1, 2018

Dzumhur mounted an impressive comeback mid-contest and the men battled to a tie-break in the fourth set.

The drama continued into the fifth set when Zverev led 4-2 only for Dzumhur to break back and go 5-4.

Zverev dug deep and saved the match point on his own serve before making it 5-5.

The match was made even more dramatic when Bosnian-born Dzumhur collided with a ball boy who lay motionless on the ground after the pair both went after the same high ball.

The ballboy was escorted from the court by a visibly upset Dzumhur and several officials but thankfully appeared unhurt.

Zverev, the youngest player in the ATP top 20, is bidding to become the first German men’s champion in Paris since 1937.

Frequently touted as a future world No.1, the 21-year-old’s grand slam performance remains checkered, having never advanced past the fourth round in 11 tries.

At the Australian Open in January he was defeated in the third round by rising South Korean star Chung Hyeon.

After his win against Dzumhur, Zverev has secured his place in the final 16 of the tournament and enters the fourth round contest at a grand slam.

Can he find a way to his first fifth round?