After entering Roland Garros without a main-draw win at the event, Francisco Cerundolo has secured his best Grand Slam result by reaching the fourth round in Paris. The Argentine defeated ninth seed Taylor Fritz 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday evening to continue his run, improving to 6-7 against Top 10 opponents with the victory.

Cerundolo was without a win in four Grand Slam main-draw appearances prior to 2023, but reached the third round at the Australian Open before his success at Roland Garros. His Paris campaign will continue with a showdown against sixth seed Holger Rune on Monday.

The 24-year-old, who has moved up three places from his current career-high to No. 20 this week in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, frustrated Fritz with his big forehand to earn the victory on Court Suzanne-Lenglen after two hours and 50 minutes. After surrendering an early break advantage in a dramatic fourth set, Cerundolo saved a set point on serve at 4-5 with a majestic topspin lob and ultimately won the final three games of the match behind his baseline brilliance.

Beautiful from @FranCerundolo 😍@rolandgarros | #RolandGarros

pic.twitter.com/WGlt7Be7Mg

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 3, 2023

The back-and-forth match saw a combined 10 breaks of serve, with Cerundolo converting on six of 21 break chances and Fritz claiming four of his 15 break points. Fritz, whose defeat means that five of the Top 10 seeds are out after three rounds at Roland Garros, fired nine aces to Cerundolo’s one. But the American was second-best in many of the neutral rallies as Cerundolo moved him from side to side with power and width. 

Cerundolo, a quarter-finalist at the ATP Masters 1000s in Miami and Rome this season, was one of three Argentines in action on Saturday. While Rune breezed past Genaro Alberto Olivieri, Tomas Martin Etcheverry upset 15th seed Borna Coric 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2 earlier in the day. With the victory, the 23-year-old Etcheverry — who reached his first two ATP Tour finals this season in Santiago and Houston — extended his best major run. 

The 23-year-old, up 12 spots to No. 37 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, dropped to the floor in celebration following his second Top 20 win of the season. The Argentine defeated World No. 19 Alex de Minaur in the second round in Paris.

Etcheverry owned just one Grand Slam main-draw win prior to Roland Garros, his victory coming earlier this season at the Australian Open. Next up for the unseeded Argentine is a fourth-round meeting with 27th seed Yoshihito Nishioka, a 3-6, 7-6(8), 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 winner against Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild on Saturday.

Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski reached the Roland Garros quarter-finals as a team for the second consecutive year Saturday when they defeated Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 7-5, 6-4.

Koolhof and Skupski won 86 per cent (31/36) of their first-serve points and broke three times to advance after one hour and 29 minutes.

The top seeds won seven tour-level titles last season but have yet to triumph this year. Chasing their first major trophy in Paris, the Dutch-British tandem will next meet 10th seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos or Marcelo Melo and John Peers.

Defending champions Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer also advanced, overcoming Jamie Murray and Michael Venus 6-2, 6-2. Murray and Venus clinched the crown in Geneva last week but were unable to topple the third seeds.

Arevalo and Rojer are aiming to clinch their third tour-level title of the season this week, having won in Adelaide and Delray Beach. They will next play Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara or Matwe Middelkoop and Andreas Mies.

Rafael Nadal is expected to recuperate for five months after successfully undergoing arthroscopic surgery to check his left psoas muscle on Friday.

“Hello everyone. As you know last night I had surgery. Everything went well and the arthroscopy was on the left psoas tendon that has kept me out of competition since January,” wrote Nadal in Spanish on social media on Saturday.

“An old injury to the labrum of my left hip was also [fixed] which will surely help the better evolution of the tendon. I want to thank doctors Marc Philippon, Jaume Vilaro and Angel Ruiz-Cotorro for their work.

“I will start progressive functional rehabilitation immediately and the normal recovery process they tell me is 5 months, if all goes well.”

Hola a todos. Como sabéis anoche tuve una intervención quirúrgica. Todo ha ido bien y la artroscopia fue en el tendón del psoas izquierdo que me ha tenido apartado de la competición desde enero.

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) June 3, 2023

The Spaniard, who has not competed since the Australian Open in January, underwent surgery at the Teknon Clinic in Barcelona. The surgery consisted of cleaning the fibrotic and degenerated areas of the tendon both proximal and distal, as well as stitching it to adequately reinforce it. An old injury to the labrum of his left hip was also fixed, which will help the tendon evolve better.

Holger Rune wasted little in reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros for the second consecutive year on Saturday when he ended Genaro Alberto Olivieri’s run with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 win.

The 20-year-old received a second-round walkover from Gael Monfils and looked fresh throughout the clash against the Argentine qualifier. The sixth seed took large cuts at the ball to strike 35 winners, while he returned with relentless aggression and depth to advance after two hours.

“I played my first round on Tuesday and unfortunately I could not play the second round against Gael. I wish him all the best, he is an incredible player. I was super happy with my level today,” Rune said. “It was difficult and very windy. Olivieri played a good tournament so I had to be sharp.”

Rune advanced to the quarter-finals on debut in Paris last year and will aim to reach that stage again when he meets 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round.

“I love it every time I step out on this court. It is one of my favourite courts in the world,” Rune said when asked about competing on Court Philippe Chatrier. “I have played some of my best tennis here.”

Rune, who beat Christopher Eubanks in four sets in the first round, has performed strongly on clay this year. The Dane advanced to the final at ATP Masters 1000 events in Monte-Carlo and Rome, while he won his fourth tour-level title in Munich. He holds a 15-3 record on the surface in 2023.

At No. 231 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Olivieri was the lowest-ranked player to reach the third round in Paris this year. The 24-year-old qualifier, who had never played a main draw tour-level match before this week, is up 60 spots to No. 171 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es.

Juan Pablo Varillas claimed the biggest win of his life on Friday by seeing off Hubert Hurkacz to book a place in the fourth round of Roland Garros, becoming the first Peruvian to reach the last 16 since Jaime Yzaga in 1994. To do so he has had to fend off three fifth-set match points: against Chinese player Juncheng Chang in the first round, Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round, and finally against Hurkacz.

In the process, Varillas also managed to do something else; he sent a message of hope to the young people of Peru.

“I think it’s a very good thing for my country,” said Varillas. “Being a professional tennis player is not an option there, so this is a good example for the children. With hard work, discipline, perseverance and belief in yourself, I think it’s possible. It will be a good boost for the children to continue to pursue their dreams of being professional tennis players so that their parents don’t pressure them.

“It’s an incredible feeling and it’s difficult to describe because this triumph is a result of many years of hard work, of coming through the ranks, of making sacrifices all the time, of the support of my team, my family and the people around me. That leads you to experience and enjoy moments like this.”

It was precisely those people that stopped him from retiring from tennis in 2016. Back then, struggling with the dip in confidence that comes with a lack of results and after six months of fruitless hard work in Barcelona, Varillas was considering hanging up his racquet. Suddenly, the words of his idol had stopped making sense. “Hopefully we’ll meet someday on Tour. Practise hard!” the Spaniard told him in 2013 during an exhibition in Peru, where they played a doubles match together.

The four photos of Rafael Nadal hanging on the walls of his parents’ home in Lima went from being a motivation to a reminder of a time when he seemed to have reached a dead end. The dream of coinciding with his hero had all but evaporated.

“I thought ‘I’m not cut out for this, competition on this level is not for me’,” admitted Varillas.

In fact, he considered going back to studying engineering at the Catholic University of Lima, a degree he had set aside years early to fully focus on tennis.

However, the Lima native trusted the advice of his loved ones. Since then, slowly but surely, the results have kept coming. The 2020 Australian Open was his first experience of a major, and despite losing in the second round of qualifying, he shared a locker room with Nadal and realized that it had been worthwhile fighting for his dream. Finally, he crossed paths with his idol on the professional circuit.

The support of his family also proved crucial early in his career.

“In the early years, they were the ones who helped me,” he remembered. “I was playing in Futures tournaments for almost six years. They supported me, trusted me and never pressured me. They played the role of parents, but without interfering in the tennis. They were with me through thick and thin. They deserve all my gratitude. It’s the first time they have come to see me at a Grand Slam. I’m happy to have the chance to share this moment with them.”

Last August he broke into the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and this week in Paris he has claimed his first three wins at a major.

“Doing that here is special. Roland Garros is the tournament I always dreamed of playing in. I have also dreamed of winning matches here, and it’s amazing now that it’s happening. I’m so proud,” added the world No. 94.

He came very close to achieving that dream one year ago. He was two sets up against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round but went on to lose. Twelve months on, he now has three wins in the main draw of this season’s Roland Garros. That winning mentality was largely fostered in Buenos Aires, the city he has called home since early 2017.

“In Argentina I completely changed my life. I started to mature there and improved a lot in every way,” said Varillas. “There are so many great players, coaches, fitness coaches, physios and sports psychologists in that country. All that competition makes you raise your game and prevents you from resting on your laurels.”

Amid all the success stories from Argentinian players at his year’s clay-court major, Varillas could easily be confused for one of them. He has an Argentine coach (Diego Junqueira, former World No. 68), he drinks mate, eats medialunas and is a Boca Juniors fan. However, he has not forgotten his roots and still works hard to inspire new generations of players in Peru.

“I try to set an example,” he explained. “I had Lucho Horna to look up to, and now I can be that for other kids. It’s a wonderful responsibility and I try to use it as extra motivation.”

Now, Varillas is surely facing the biggest challenge of his career; Novak Djokovic in the fourth round at Roland Garros. He only learned who his opponent would be a few minutes after sealing his passage to the next round.

“I didn’t know, I found out in the on-court interview,” he said. “Playing against one of the biggest players in history on one of the most amazing courts on Tour… I’m so excited about the opportunity of going out there and winning. It’s the perfect stage to continue this great week.”