Rafael Nadal may well join him later on Friday, but Roger Federer will always be able to say he was the first man to achieve a record 14 fourth-round appearances at Roland Garros.

The 2009 champion set a new Roland Garros record with his 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(8) win against Norway’s #NextGenATP star Casper Ruud, surpassing Budge Patty’s 13 Round of 16 showings from 1946 to 1958.

Federer, returning to Roland Garros for the first time since 2015, outhit and outthought the 20-year-old Norwegian in the intergenerational battle, serving and volleying on second serves with success and avoiding lengthy rallies with the Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful on a picture-perfect day in Paris. 

View Infosys MatchBeats For Federer-Ruud

He will face French wild card Nicolas Mahut, also 37, or Argentine Leonardo Mayer for a place in the quarter-finals, which would be Federer’s first since January 2018 at the Australian Open, where he won his 20th Grand Slam title.

Federer said before his third-round match that he probably knew more about Casper’s father and coach, Christian Ruud, who joined Federer in three Roland Garros draws from 1999-2001, than he did about Casper.

The 20-year-old was playing in his first Grand Slam third round and made his best ATP Masters 1000 showing earlier this month by making the Round of 16 in Rome. He hung with Federer to start, but the Swiss broke twice in each of the first two sets to take the lead.

Ruud rallied in the third, breaking early, and although he was unable to consolidate, he stepped into the court to force a tie-break, where Federer clinched his fourth match point.

Did You Know?
Federer, 37 years 305 days, became the oldest man to make the fourth round in Paris since Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli (38 years 267 days) in 1972.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal look to continue their impressive Roland Garros runs in third-round action on Friday. Sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas seeks his 32nd tour-level win of the season and 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka faces Grigor Dimitrov in a blockbuster clash.

Third seed Federer takes on #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud, who is competing in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. Casper’s father, Christian Ruud, is a former Top 40 player who reached the third round here in 1995 and 1999. The Swiss star has yet to drop a set this tournament and holds a 67-16 record at the second major of the year. Ruud reached his first ATP Tour final this April in Houston (l. to Garin).

Eleven-time champion and second seed Nadal battles No. 27 seed David Goffin of Belgium. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 3-1 and hasn’t lost a set in their three meetings on clay. The Spaniard has lost just 13 games in his first two rounds this fortnight and is now on a seven-match winning streak on clay. Goffin also dropped 13 games in reaching the third round and is displaying the tennis that brought him to a career-high No. 7 in the ATP Rankings.

Tsitsipas returns to Philippe-Chatrier to face Filip Krajinovic. The Serbian had never won a match on the red clay of Paris prior to this year. Tsitsipas’ results this European clay swing include a stunning win over Nadal en route to a runner-up finish at the Mutua Madrid Open (l. to Djokovic), semi-final showing at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and his third tour-level title at the Millennium Estoril Open (d. Cuevas).

Wawrinka and Dimitrov are even in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry at 4-4, but the Swiss won their past two meetings in first-round clashes last year at Wimbledon and the US Open. Dimitrov defeated Marin Cilic in five sets on Wednesday for his first Top 15 win since April 2018. Wawrinka seeks his first fourth-round appearance at a major since finishing runner-up here in 2017 (l. to Nadal).

Other notable third-round matches on Friday include seventh seed Kei Nishikori of Japan taking on No. 31 seed Laslo Djere of Serbia and French wild card Nicolas Mahut looking to continue his run against Argentine Leonardo Mayer.

More On #RG19

* The Moment Nadal’s Practice Routine Changed Forever
* Federer Closes On ‘Alphabet’ Grand Slam
* Federer on Ruud: ‘I Know More About His Dad’

ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, 31 MAY 2019

Court Philippe-Chatrier start 11:00
Two WTA matches
[2] Rafael Nadal vs David Goffin
[6] Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Filip Krajinovic

Court Suzanne Lenglen start 11:00
WTA match
Martin Klizan vs [22] Lucas Pouille – To Finish 76(4) 26 63 31
[3] Roger Federer vs Casper Ruud
WTA match
[24] Stan Wawrinka vs Grigor Dimitrov

Court Simonne-Mathieu start 11:00
WTA match
Benoit Paire vs Pablo Carreno Busta
Nicolas Mahut vs Leonardo Mayer
WTA match

Court No. 1 start 11:00
Jeremy Chardy / Fabrice Martin vs Matwe Middelkoop / Tim Puetz
[31] Laslo Djere vs [7] Kei Nishikori
[WC] Gregoire Barrere / Quentin Halys vs Alex de Minaur / David Vega Hernandez

Court No. 14 start 11:00
Rajeev Ram / Joe Salisbury vs Enzo Couacaud / Tristan Lamasine
WTA match
[WC] Corentin Moutet vs Juan Ignacio Londero

Court No. 7 start 11:00
[8] Henri Kontinen / John Peers vs Marcelo Demoliner / Divij Sharan
WTA match – to finish
Guido Pella / Diego Schwartzman vs Matteo Berrettini / Lorenzo Sonego
[4] Oliver Marach / Mate Pavic vs Elliot Benchetrit / Geoffrey Blancaneaux
Dominic Inglot / Martin Klizan vs Leander Paes / Benoit Paire

Court No. 6 start 11:00
Dusan Lajovic / Janko Tipsarevic vs Denys Molchanov / Igor Zelenay
WTA match
[WC] Benjamin Bonzi / Antoine Hoang vs Rohan Bopanna / Marius Copil
Federico Delbonis / Guillermo Duran vs Miomir Kecmanovic / Casper Ruud

Court No. 9 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
Ricardas Berankis / Yoshihito Nishioka vs [10] Jean-Julien Rojer / Horia Tecau

Court No. 12 start 11:00
Pablo Cuevas / Feliciano Lopez vs Mikhail Kukushkin / Joran Vliegen

Antoine Hoang wants this week to continue for the rest of his life. The 23-year-old Frenchman is into the third round at Roland Garros, and will next meet one of the flag bearers of French men’s tennis for the past decade.

Here are five things to know about the 23-year-old Hoang:

1. He had one tour-level win before this week.
Hoang won his first ATP Challenger Tour title last October in Eckental and in February, he celebrated his maiden tour-level win at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Hoang qualified for the ATP 250 event and beat Belgian Steve Darcis before losing to countryman Jeremy Chardy. The French wild card has doubled his career win total this week by making the third round in Paris.

“I could not explain. Good things happen to me this time,” Hoang said. “I’m a bit lucky sometimes. Today Fernando served for the third set. He did 40/0 on his game, and then the things turned to my side. I don’t know. I can’t explain everything. But I have nothing to lose here, so I try to enjoy every moment, to push every time.”

2. He has a university degree.
Hoang is all in on his tennis career, but he has a backup plan if things don’t go exactly to plan. He has a university degree in sports.

“My parents pushed me to study so that I could have a Plan B. I don’t know if it’s a good idea. But when one has a project, we should actually push it as far as possible at 20, 21, 22,” Hoang said.

“Now I’m giving myself 100 per cent to this project. I’m not thinking about teaching with my sports degree. Maybe I’m arriving on the Tour later than others, but I still have a lot of beautiful years ahead of me. I can evolve and progress. I do not regret what I have done so far.”

3. He is ambidextrious.
The way Hoang explains it, shoulder problems led him to decide to train with his left arm. “I made quite a lot of progress,” he said.

But once he fully recovered from his injury and wanted to again play his best, he switched back to using his right hand.

“I started playing tennis when I was a kid with my right hand, so I was playing forehand and backhand normally, but I already had a good backhand,” Hoang said. “Then when I got hurt, as I said, I learned to play with my left hand, doing the forehand and maybe the left-handed backhand.”

4. He works with a mental coach.
Perhaps Hoang has had the best week of his life because, mentally, what he needs to do on the court is clearer than ever. He worked with a mental coach before Roland Garros.

“The aim was to stay focused on my objectives, to encourage myself from the beginning to the end, even if there are mistakes, even if the match is not perfect,” Hoang said.

“I’ve been working on this on a daily basis, how to keep a positive mindset. I like to have attacking shots, so sometimes I make mistakes and it’s hard to follow this mentally because you may wonder, ‘Why are you making such mistakes?’ And this is actually what I think about myself, too. I try to be stable and composed, mentally speaking.”

The self-proclaimed introvert has stayed mentally composed despite rarely encouraging himself out loud. Hoang said showing emotions on court isn’t easy for him, but he’s working on it.

“The mental fight is important and sharing emotions with the crowd is important. I’m making efforts to do so. I’m trying to encourage myself when I tend not to. It’s very important,” he said.

Read More: Mahut Describes His Best Victory In Paris

5. He next plays the face of men’s tennis in France.
Hoang will want to play as fearless as possible when he meets Gael Monfils, surely at Court Philippe Chatrier, the main show court, or Court Suzanne Lenglen, the second biggest court at Roland Garros.

Monfils made the third round for the 11^th time by dismissing countryman Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The 32-year-old has yet to drop a set in Paris.

“I know Gael from watching him on TV. I really enjoyed watching him, whether in Davis Cup or in other international tournaments,” Hoang said. “He’s a very nice person, so I guess the atmosphere of the match will be good. We’re not going to fight each other in that way. But the public will be behind both of us and will support a good game, so I believe we will both get support from the public.”

About playing on a bigger court, Hoang said, “All these things I’m not used to going through. It’s a first for me, and I feel that these things I wanted to go through, I didn’t want to be afraid.”