French Open: Ramos-Vinolas, Gasquet through

Albert Ramos-Vinolas pulled off a shock to progress to the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday, before Richard Gasquet ended his wait to secure a first appearance in the last eight of his home grand slam.

Ramos-Vinolas had never advanced beyond the second round of a major before this week, but the Spaniard will face defending champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros following a 6-2 6-4 6-4 triumph over Milos Raonic.

The elegant Gasquet can celebrate his best run in Paris as a result a 6-4 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory over fifth seed Kei Nishikori and will now face Andy Murray.

Murray beat big-serving American John Isner 7-6 (11-9) 6-4 6-3 following a rain delay, while Wawrinka saw off Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 6-2.

RAMOS-VINOLAS ON CLOUD NINE

Ramos-Vinolas lost in the first round on the famous Roland Garros clay in each of the last four years and did not anticipate making such an impact this time around.

"I have been working very hard for a long time, trying to find the way to win more matches. The work I did, it's working now," he said.

"It's like a present for me, because, to be honest, I didn't expect this one when I arrived here. Last week I lost to Wawrinka 6-1, 6-1 in Geneva. I was a little bit down. This is tennis. And now I feel great."

GASQUET IN UNCHARTERED TERRITORY

Gasquet failed to advance beyond the fourth round in 13 attempts before getting the better of Nishikori.

The ninth seed had never won a set against Nishikori before dumping out the world number six after fighting back from 4-2 down in the first set following a 50-minute delay due to rain.

Gasquet said the weather-enforced break worked in his favour.

"I think it was [a] very important time for me to stop after that, because I was playing not good," said the Frenchman. "I was playing far from the baseline and very slow. And of course my coach talked to me very loudly, and that's why I played a bad game coming back.

"But after I think I played well. And of course I took a lot of confidence after winning that set. I played much better in the second set, and also with the crowd cheering for me, it was a great moment."

MURRAY BUILDING MOMENTUM

Murray made an unconvincing start to the tournament, needing five sets to beat Radek Stepanek and Mathias Bourgue, but the second seed has now sealed back-to-back victories.

John Isner was the latest big-serving player to be beaten by the two-time grand-slam champion, who needed less than two hours to defeat Croatian Ivo Karlovic in round three.

The Brit, eyeing his first title at Roland Garros, has won his last five matches against Gasquet - including a victory over the world number 12 in the last 16 in Paris four years ago.

WAWRINKA NOT TAKING SURPRISE PACKAGE LIGHTLY

Wawrinka has won all six of his matches against Ramos-Vinolas, but the Swiss is braced for a challenging encounter against the left-hander.

"He's playing really well since the beginning of the tournament." said Wawrinka.

"I played him a few times already. Last week was a really easy match, but before that [there] was always some tough matches. He's a really dangerous player. He's a player that maybe from my side you don't think he's going to be that tough, but when you play against him he's a tough player to play."