The Russian second seed, who had lost in the opening round on each of his four previous visits to Roland Garros, impressed after a sloppy opening set, winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

The 25-year-old missed two match points when he served for the match at 5-2 in the fourth set, but he broke Paul to love in the following game.

Medvedev, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, has won all of his 10 ATP titles on hard courts but has got to grips with the Parisian clay better so far this week.

The world number two will take on another US player, 32nd seed Reilly Opelka, for a last-16 place.