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QF Preview: Ruud, Rune Set For Roland Garros Rematch; Zverev vs. Etcheverry

The Roland Garros quarter-finals wrap up on Wednesday, with two more players set to join Novak Djokovic/Karen Khachanov and Carlos Alcaraz/Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semis. 

In a battle of Top 10 seeds, Casper Ruud and Holger Rune will contest a rematch of their memorable quarter-final from one year ago at the clay-court Grand Slam, while Alexander Zverev faces Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who entered Paris with just one major victory.

ATPTour.com breaks down the two men's matches on the Wednesday schedule.

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[4] Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. [6] Holger Rune (DEN)

One year ago, the two Scandinavians squared off in a four-set quarter-final won by Ruud on the terre bateau. The 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 victory extended the Norwegian's perfect ATP Head2Head record to 4-0 against Rune and helped him on his way to his first Grand Slam final.

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Evans Earns Opening Win At Surbiton Challenger

Top seed Daniel Evans produced a strong serving performance to cruise to an opening-round victory Tuesday at the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event in Surbiton.

The home favourite defeated Australian teenager James McCabe 6-4, 6-4 after winning 40 of 46 points on serve, despite a 54 per cent first-serve percentage. The World No. 25, who won the Surbiton Challenger title in 2019, is aiming for a fourth grass-court Challenger title this week.

“I played pretty solid tennis, it’s always nice to play at home,” Evans said in his post-match interview. “It’s a pretty cool place to play, it’s sort of an old-fashioned tennis club. It’s somewhere I’ve enjoyed playing before and that’s why I come back.”

Evans will next meet 6’8” Gabriel Diallo, who downed Liam Broady 6-4, 6-4 in first-round action at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy. Also in action, defending champion Jordan Thompson ousted Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-4 in just one hour, seven minutes.

Eighth seed Christopher Eubanks and seventh seed Constant Lestienne both survived three-setters to advance Tuesday. The American Eubanks defeated countryman Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3 and Lestienne moved past home hope Daniel Cox 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

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Djokovic Weathers Khachanov Storm To Secure Roland Garros SF Spot

Novak Djokovic’s 2023 Roland Garros blueprint: Hang tough in the face of a quick start from your opponent, raise your level at key moments to assume control, and accelerate away to victory.

It was more of the same on Tuesday in Paris as the third seed braved an early barrage from Karen Khachanov before sealing an ultimately comfortable 4-6, 7-6(0), 6-2, 6-4 quarter-final triumph at the clay-court major. Djokovic did not earn a break point in the opening two sets but raised his level spectacularly from the second-set tie-break onwards on Court Philippe-Chatrier to seal a three-hour, 38-minute win.

“I think he was the better player for most of the [first] two sets,” said Djokovic in his on-court interview. “I was struggling to find my rhythm. I made a lot of unforced errors and came into the match quite slow, quite sluggish. But I played the perfect [second-set] tie-break, really, and from that moment I played a couple of levels higher than I did at the beginning.

“[There was] a little bit of a scare towards the end of the fourth set, but I managed to win eight points in a row to finish it off. It’s a big fight. It’s something that you expect in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. You’re not going to have your victories handed over to you. You’ve got to earn them, so I’m just glad to overcome the big challenge of today.”

Djokovic’s opponent in the final four will be Carlos Alcaraz or fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Serbian can replace Alcaraz as No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings by lifting a record 23rd major title this fortnight in Paris.

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Dominant Djokovic The Tie-Break King

Novak Djokovic has become the tie-break king.

The Serbian won a critical second-set tie-break 7/0 in his Roland Garros quarter-final win on Tuesday against Karen Khachanov to avoid going down two sets to love on Court Philippe Chatrier. It was more of the same for Djokovic, who improved to 5-0 in tie-breaks at this year’s clay-court major.

"I kind of held my nerves in the tie-break of the second, played a perfect tie-break, really," Djokovic said. "Amazing tie-break. Every single point I played it in a perfect manner."

The two-time champion’s tie-break stats this fortnight have been jaw-dropping. Djokovic has outscored opponents 35-12 in his five tie-breaks and hit 13 winners to an astonishing zero unforced errors. Once the Serbian has entered his “lockdown mode”, there has been little any opponent has been able to do about it.

Djokovic's 2023 Roland Garros Tie-breaks

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'Game On!' Tsitsipas Relishes Alcaraz Battle; Djokovic vs. Khachanov

The quarter-final stage is set at Roland Garros, and the high-stakes action will begin on Tuesday with three of the Top 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings set to compete.

In the Court Philippe-Chatrier evening session, world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz will take on fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, against whom he holds a 4-0 ATP Head2Head record. The day session on the show court will see two-time Roland Garros champ Novak Djokovic face Karen Khachanov, who is bidding for his third straight Grand Slam semi-final.

ATPTour.com breaks down the two marquee matchups on the Tuesday schedule, which also includes two men's doubles quarter-finals.

[1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. [5] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE)

Alcaraz's path to superstardom took a major leap at the 2021 US Open, when he announced himself at the game's highest level with a five-set stunner against Tsitsipas, sealed with victory in a final-set tie-break. Since then, Alcaraz has won three more matches against the Greek, including a straight-sets result six weeks ago in the Barcelona final.

When the Roland Garros draw was revealed, a potential rematch in the quarter-finals was one of the most hotly anticipated possibilities in the men's singles draw — not least for Tsitsipas himself.

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Murray Flies Through Grass Opener At Surbiton Challenger

Andy Murray kicked off his grass-court season in winning fashion Monday. The Scot defeated former World No. 19 Hyeon Chung 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event in Surbiton.

The three-time major champion displayed smooth court coverage, often working his way to the net. In action just 20 minutes from the All England Club, where the 36-year-old has won two Wimbledon titles, Murray won 24 of 29 first-serve points to oust the South Korean Chung, who was playing just his third match since returning from two-and-half-years off due to a back injury.

Murray will next meet a qualifier, China’s Yunchaokete Bu or Briton Harry Wendelken.

In other action at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy, fifth seed Jason Kubler defeated Gijs Brouwer 6-1, 7-6(4) and Denis Kudla survived Christopher O’Connell 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Wild card Ryan Peniston cruised past Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-2.

Top seed and World No. 25 Daniel Evans will be in first-round action Tuesday against Australian teenager James McCabe.

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Zverev Lifts Level To Down Dimitrov, Return To Roland Garros QFs

Headlining the Roland Garros evening session for his third straight match, Alexander Zverev again closed the curtains on both Court Phlippe-Chatrier and his opponent with a battling victory under the lights.

After an eventful four-set win against Frances Tiafoe on Saturday, Zverev needed only three sets to move past Grigor Dimitrov on Monday evening. But his 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory still packed plenty of drama, with the German battling back from a break down in the second set and surrendering a 3-0 lead in the third.

Zverev's victory saw him through to the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the fifth time in five years, and he will seek his third straight semi-final when he faces Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Wednesday. The 26-year-old has reached nine major quarter-finals overall, with his best Grand Slam result a run to the 2021 US Open final.

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Zverev opened in imperious form against Dimitrov, dominating the early stages of the match with powerful baseline hitting and just five unforced errors in the opening set. Dimitrov began to find his footing — and his forehand — in the second to build a 4-2 lead, but Zverev snapped back by winning seven straight games to move to the brink of victory.

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Gille/Vliegen Dream Run Continues At Roland Garros

Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen broke new ground on Monday at Roland Garros, where the Belgian duo reached their maiden Grand Slam semi-final as a team by downing 14th seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6(4).

Gille and Vliegen outhit their 14th-seeded opponents by 34 winners to 26 on the way to a 99-minute victory on Court Simonne-Mathieu. They rallied from 1-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, in which they won five of the final six points to seal their win.

The unseeded duo is chasing its third tour-level crown of the season (Pune, Estoril) in Paris this fortnight. The pair has risen five spots to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings as a result of their run in the French capital.

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Their next opponents will be Matwe Middelkoop and Andreas Mies, who ended the Roland Garros reign of 2022 winners Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer with a 7-6(6), 6-1 triumph at the clay-court major.

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Coaches' Corner: Louis Cayer Dishes On Doubles

Louis Cayer is one of the preeminent voices in the doubles world, currently helping British doubles players. World No. 1 Neal Skupski, who along with Wesley Koolhof is in the Roland Garros quarter-finals, is one of his charges.

Cayer spoke to ATPTour.com about the biggest differences between coaching singles and doubles players, the intricacies of doubles some might not notice, and more.

How different is it coaching doubles players compared to the singles players?
I'll start with coaching doubles players, because this is what I presently do. I think it's a bit underestimated because I have to coach a Deuce-side player, maximise his strengths, his potential. I have to coach the Ad-side player for the same reason, but I have to also coach a team to [figure out] how they will gel, team patterns, team strategy. So it's like if I have three players to coach. And when I scout, I have to scout the Deuce-side player, scout the Ad-side player and scout how the [opponents] play as a team, which plays they like to do together and combine that. So it's quite complex.

Plus, I have a philosophy that we have to coach a performer and a player. But what triggers the performer, to activate someone [is different for different people]. For you it could be, ‘Come on, come on’. And the other one is very [calm]. ‘Okay, let's go, I want to be sure you're calm for the match’. And so when you do either pep talk, it's not as complex as a football team or a hockey team, but still you have to gauge a bit what tone you will give to the pre-match talk, respecting the different individuality and stuff like this. So I think it's quite complex at that level.

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NCAA Champ Quinn Among 21 College Players To Qualify For ATP Accelerator Programme

NCAA men's singles champion Ethan Quinn is among 21 college players who will benefit from direct entry into ATP Challenger Tour main draw and qualifying fields as part of the new Accelerator Programme, a joint initiative between ATP and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

The programme was developed to increase the development pathway for top players in the American Collegiate system. Following the NCAA championships last month at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona/Orlando in Florida, it was announced that 21 players would benefit from the Accelerator Programme.

Players ranked in the Top 20 of the ITA final singles rankings who have finished their education are granted up to eight Accelerator Spots at Challenger 50 and 75 tournaments, with opportunities split between main draw (for Top 10 ITA ranked players) and qualifying (11-20). Players who reach the quarter-finals or better of the individual NCAA Division I Tennis Championships also qualify for the Accelerator Programme if not already eligible via their ITA ranking. These opportunities are available from 1 July for a period of 12 months.

Players who continue their education and qualify for the programme will receive six opportunities over six months (July–December), enabling them to benefit from the programme during their college off-season and parts of their fall season.

Accelerator Programme Qualifiers

 Player College
Eliot Spizzirri Texas 
Ethan Quinn Georgia
Arthur Fery Stanford
Ondrej Styler Michigan
Chris Rodesch Virginia
Johannus Monday Tennessee
Melios Efstathiou Wake Forest
Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc Florida State
Andres Martin Georgia Tech
Toby Samuel South Carolina
Liam Draxl Kentucky
Cannon Kingsley Ohio State
Murphy Cassone Arizona State
Andrew Fenty Michigan
Sebastian Dominko Notre Dame
Nishesh Basavareddy Stanford
Connor Thomson South Carolina
Garrett Johns Duke
Jake Fearnley TCU
Alafia Ayeni Kentucky
Alexander Bernard Ohio State

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Lightning Strikes Twice! Rune's 0/40 Holds Save The Day

Lightning struck twice for Holger Rune on Monday at Roland Garros.

The Dane outlasted Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) to reach the quarter-finals in Paris for the second consecutive year. Twice in the match, the sixth seed dug out of a 0/40 service deficit to hold.

What is stunning is that entering the match, the 20-year-old was 1-20 in attempts to hold from 0/40 this year according to Infosys ATP Stats. On one of the world's biggest stages, he did it twice in one match.

In the second game of the second set, Rune overcame a 0/40 hole and saved five break points in the game to hold. That particular rally proved relatively inconsequential as he went on to lose the set.

But in the fifth set, Rune again faced 0/40 under the utmost pressure. At 3-4, a loss of serve would have allowed his 23rd-seeded opponent to serve for the match. But again, Rune found his way out of trouble.

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Lajal, 20, Wins Maiden Challenger Title In Just 6th Outing

Mark Lajal enjoyed a surprise run this week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he became the first Estonian to win a Challenger title before his 21st birthday. While he surged to his maiden Challenger crown, Francisco Comesana and Ivan Gakhov both added to their tally of Challenger titles.

Despite the hard-court event being Lajal’s sixth tournament at the Challenger level, he dropped just one set all week and defeated qualifier Beibit Zhukayev 6-4, 7-5 in Sunday’s final at the UAMS Health Little Rock Open. In the second round, the 20-year-old upset top seed Tung-Lin Wu.

“It was a great week here in Arkansas, my first time here,” Lajal said. “I really enjoyed it here, the whole organisation, the hospitality, it was perfect. I felt really good from the first day that I was here, I felt something that I hadn’t felt before. If someone would have told me a week ago that I would win the tournament, I would not have believed them.”

At a career-high No. 230 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, Lajal joins Jurgen Zopp as the only Estonians to win titles on the Challenger Tour. Zopp, who reached a career-high No. 71 in 2012, retired from pro tennis three years ago.

Comesana claimed his third Challenger title and first of this year in Vicenza, Italy. The 22-year-old Argentine rallied to beat Pablo Llamas Ruiz 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the championship match at the Trofeo FL Service - Città di Vicenza. Despite being far from Argentine soil, Comesana stated that he felt at home on the Italian clay.

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Rune Edges Cerundolo In Roland Garros Thriller

Holger Rune became a five-set winner for the first time in dramatic circumstances on Monday at Roland Garros, where the sixth seed Dane overcame Francisco Cerundolo and physical issues to clinch a 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) fourth-round victory.

Rune prevailed in a three-hour, 59-minute encounter of fluctuating quality by claiming a nail-biting deciding set on Court-Suzanne-Lenglen. The Dane had failed to serve out the match at 5-4 earlier in the set but overcame that disappointment with a steely Match Tie-break display.

The match that had EVERYTHING!@holgerrune2003 wins a tough 5 set rollercoaster against Cerundolo 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4 1-6 7-6(7)!@rolandgarros | #rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/WknzTTNVVr

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 5, 2023

Rune is now 1-2 in five-set matches. At January’s Australian Open, the Dane let slip two match points before falling to a fourth-round Match Tie-break defeat against Andrey Rublev. The World No. 6 cited that experience as key to his ability to handle the pressure against Cerundolo.

“I had a heartbreaking loss in Australia, where I had this situation,” said Rune in his on-court interview. “I served for the match and lost and ended up in a Match Tie-break like this, so actually I told myself when we started the Match Tie-break [today] just to relax and play tennis and enjoy [it].

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Ruud Digs Deep, Ousts Jarry To Reach Roland Garros QFs

Casper Ruud knows how to hang tough at Roland Garros.

Repeatedly placed under pressure by Nicolas Jarry in the pair’s fourth-round clash Monday in Paris, the fourth seed battled to a 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5 victory. Ruud saved 14 of 17 break points across three tightly contested sets to reach his third major quarter-final.

The Norwegian prevailed in a first-set tie-break, rallied from 1-4 to claim the second set and then 2-4 to clinch the third and seal a three-hour, 20-minute triumph. His rock-solid baseline display in blustery conditions proved decisive against the aggressive Jarry, who hit 56 winners to Ruud’s 30 in an engrossing clash. Yet the Chilean was unable to match his opponent’s consistency at key moments.

Ruud, who reached the championship match at Roland Garros last year, has now won a Tour-leading 85 matches on clay since 2020. The 24-year-old will take on Holger Rune or Francisco Cerundolo in the last eight as he continues his bid for a maiden Grand Slam crown.

[BREAK POINT]

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Musetti Says Alcaraz 'Probably Can Win This Tournament'

Lorenzo Musetti believes Carlos Alcaraz can “probably” win Roland Garros after the pair’s fourth-round clash on Sunday in Paris. The top seed eased to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory.

“[He] was serving really good. We knew that [he is] probably one of the best movers on the Tour,” Musetti said. “As we know, he really likes to drop [shot] and to turn with his forehand and that [shot] is really aggressive and heavy.

“I think today he showed that he probably can win this tournament.”

The Italian entered the match having swept through the first three rounds without losing a set. The 21-year-old had also won the pair’s only previous ATP Head2Head meeting in last year’s Hamburg final.

“I think we both grew a lot since [our] last meeting in Hamburg. Of course, he won a Grand Slam, so it's something that I think you have inside,” Musetti said. “It's sort of a massive amount of experience that you need even to go a step forward for the level and to set new goals, to set a new life. So even that, I think it helped him to grow.”

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Ruud Seeks Jarry Revenge In Pursuit Of Roland Garros QF Spot

The four remaining quarter-final places will be claimed on Monday at Roland Garros, where 2022 finalist Casper Ruud and the in-form Holger Rune headline the action in the singles draw.

ATPTour.com previews the remaining fourth-round clashes as well as the key matchups in the doubles draw on the Day 9 schedule in Paris.

[BREAK POINT]

[4] Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. Nicolas Jarry (CHI)

Ruud has performed somewhere near his best in his Roland Garros run so far. Despite dropping sets to Giulio Zeppieri and Zhang Zhizhen, the Norwegian’s powerful forehand has enabled him to dictate play from the baseline in performances reminiscent of his run to the final in Paris a year ago.

Nicolas Jarry will not be daunted by taking on the Norwegian, however. The Chilean defeated Ruud in three sets in the Geneva quarter-finals just 10 days ago and went on to lift the trophy at the ATP 250. That was the 27-year-old’s second tour-level title on clay this year (he also triumphed at home in Santiago), and he is now into the fourth round at a major for the first time. Can Jarry maintain his momentum against the fourth seed?

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Dodig/Krajicek Maintain Red-Hot Roland Garros Form

After a championship-match run in 2022, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek are making their mark once again at Roland Garros.

The Croatian-American pairing moved to 8-1 as a team at the clay-court major on Sunday by defeating Francisco Cabral and Rafael Matos 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5 in the third round. Dodig and Krajicek let slip a 3-0 lead en route to losing the first set but clinched a late break of their opponents’ serve in both the second and third to wrap a two-hour, 59-minute triumph.

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The fourth seeds will take on German duo Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the quarter-finals in Paris, after the German duo moved past Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 6-4, 7-6(4). Krawietz is a two-time champion at Roland Garros, where he lifted the trophy in 2019 and 2020 alongside Andreas Mies, who was also a third-round winner. Mies and his partner Matwe Middelkoop upset fifth seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 6-4, 6-2 to book a clash against defending champions Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos were the other winning team in Paris on Sunday. The Spanish-Argentine pair ended the run of Marcelo Melo and John Peers with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Granollers and Zeballos are seven-time titlists as a team on the ATP Tour but are chasing their maiden major title this fortnight in the French capital.

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Murray To Meet Hyeon Chung At Surbiton Challenger; How To Watch

Three-time major champion Andy Murray will clash against former World No. 19 Hyeon Chung in a blockbuster first-round match Monday at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Surbiton, Great Britain.

The grass-court contest adds to Murray’s numerous encounters against star players on the Challenger Tour in the last month. At the Challenger 175 event in Aix-en-Provence, Murray ousted Gael Monfils and World No. 17 Tommy Paul en route to his first title at any level since 2019. The former World No. 1 also battled against three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka at the Bordeaux Challenger, where the Swiss earned a straight-sets victory.

The second seed Murray, who received a wild card into the Surbiton Challenger, will meet Chung for the first time. The 27-year-old Chung is competing in just his third tournament since returning from a back injury he suffered in 2020. A semi-finalist at the 2018 Australian Open, Chung suffered a loss in the opening round of both the Seoul and Busan Challengers in April and May, respectively.

A strong field at this week’s Lexus Surbiton Trophy also features World No. 25 Daniel Evans and American Mackenzie McDonald.

Watch Andy Murray vs. Hyeon Chung (Third match on Centre Court Monday)

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Tsitsipas Sets Alcaraz Blockbuster Roland Garros QF

Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday set a blockbuster quarter-final showdown at Roland Garros against Carlos Alcaraz when he breezed past Austrian Sebastian Ofner.

After Alcaraz displayed imperious form earlier in the day against Lorenzo Musetti, Tsitsipas responded with a statement performance of his own, losing serve just once en route to a 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 victory.

Ofner put up resistance early and appeared poised to push his favoured opponent to a first-set tie-break. But when the Austrian missed a forehand wide on set point, Tsitsipas seized the opportunity to surge ahead.

The Greek hit 27 winners to just 12 unforced errors in the one-hour, 48-minute clash. He has not lost a set since the first round against Jiri Vesely.

The fifth seed has reached at least the quarter-finals in three of his past four appearances at the clay-court major. The 24-year-old has played his best tennis at the majors this season, having also advanced to the final of the Australian Open.

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Why Etcheverry's Love Of Roland Garros Goes Beyond Tennis

Tomás Etcheverry couldn’t be more excited about this Roland Garros. The Argentine is enjoying himself like few others in Paris, and not only because the clay-court major is a special tournament for him and the place where he always dreamed of playing.

On Saturday, after sealing his passage to the fourth round for the first time at a major, Etcheverry embraced his grandparents, Eduardo and Ana, who made the trip to the French capital to watch their grandson.

Two years ago, when Etcheverry played in his first Roland Garros as a professional and, then Wimbledon, the Argentine kept his accreditations for both and gave them to his grandparents as a gift because they used to take him to junior events.

“To me, giving them a moment like that is wonderful for them. For my family, my friends and everyone who has always been there,” Etcheverry said. "It’s an incredible feeling. I prepared for this, I sought it out and I think I’m playing great matches."


Argentines Francisco Cerundolo and Etcheverry are both into the second week in Paris. Photo: Amélie Laurin/FFT
As if he didn’t already have enough connections with this tournament, when Etcheverry was 10 years old, a new household pet arrived and he decided to call it Roland Garros. Everyone calls the dog “Rola”.

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