Alexander Zverev made it to the round of 16 at the French Open without shining.
Two days after his exciting five-set thriller against Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the Olympic tennis champion won against American Brandon Nakashima 7: 6 (7: 2), 6: 3, 7: 6 (7: 5) in Paris on Friday evening.
The hunt for the first Grand Slam continues for the 25-year-old from Hamburg.
Zverev is now dealing with the Spanish qualifier Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
Then there could be a quarter-final bang against tennis prodigy Carlos Alcaraz.
Against Nakashima, the third in the world rankings showed the patience and sovereignty in 2:48 hours that he had missed when he almost lost to Sebastian Baez in the second round.
"I raised my level significantly, it was a very different match than the day before yesterday," said Zverev.
"I much preferred it that way and I enjoyed the atmosphere here."
Zverev was hardly challenged against the 20-year-old American and was able to save energy for further tasks.
However, he will have to improve further for higher tasks.
Especially in the first set, Zverev acted too passively for a long time and kept getting himself into trouble.
Only in the tie-break did the native of Hamburg pick up the pace a bit and after 55 minutes he won the first round.
After a quick break in the second set, everything initially went according to plan for Zverev in the third section.
After a break to 3:2, the game on the Suzanne Lenglen court seemed to be over.
But then Zverev became unfocused again and promptly handed in his service himself.
Nakashima now smelled some morning air, the spectators hoped for an extension of the game.
Zverev is the last German tennis pro in Paris after Angelique Kerber failed in the third round to Alexandra Sasnowitsch from Belarus.