The stars are arriving at Roland Garros, where Rafael Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas are among the players working hard to get ready for the second major of the season. 

Nadal practised on Court Philippe Chatrier Wednesday with fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar, who trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar. Tsitsipas also had time on the stadium court, where he greeted the 13-time champion.

.@RafaelNadal 🤝 @steftsitsipas #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/FK8XZCgNcT

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 18, 2022

Nadal will try to extend his record of Grand Slam titles and Roland Garros trophies to 22 and 14, respectively, over the coming fortnight. The lefty is 105-3 at the event, where last year he lost in the semi-finals against eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Tsitsipas is back at the site of his greatest heartbreak. In last year’s championship match on the Paris clay, the Greek led Djokovic 7-6(6), 6-2 before falling in five sets. That was Tsitsipas’ first major final.

Others firing up in Paris include two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Italian Jannik Sinner. They will learn their path through the field on Thursday evening, when the singles draw will be made.

Luca Nardi and Chun-hsin Tseng, currently 10th and seventh respectively in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, both earned straight-sets wins Wednesday at Roland Garros qualifying to move within one victory of their debuts at the clay-court Grand Slam.

Italy’s Nardi, who knocked off qualifying No. 31 seed Andrej Martin in three sets on Tuesday, continued his run with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Great Britain’s Paul Jubb, the 2019 NCAA Divison I mens’ singles champion. The 18-year-old Nardi reached a career-high of No. 198 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings earlier this month behind a pair of ATP Challenger Tour titles on the season — the first of his young career.

He will face Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles on Thursday for a spot in the main draw next week in Paris. It would be Nardi’s Grand Slam debut. Zapata Miralles, the eighth seed in qualifying, has not dropped a set in reaching the final round, losing five games in two matches. He cruised past Portugal’s Gastao Elias, 6-1, 6-1, on Wednesday.

Chinese Taipei’s Tseng, seeded 11th in qualifying, got past countryman Jason Jung, 7-5, 6-4. The 20-year-old will face Cedrik-Marcel Stebe on Friday after the German battled past 17th seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo, 7-6(5), 6-3, on Wednesday.

The 2018 Roland Garros boy’s singles champion, Tseng made his major debut in January as a wild card at the Australian Open, where he fell in three sets to Germany’s Oscar Otte. Tseng currently sits at a career-high of No. 110 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after first breaking into the Top 200 last December.

The two highest-seeded players in action Wednesday in qualifying were both eliminated in the second round. Fifth seed Fernando Verdasco dropped a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6 decision against Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland, who is seeking his tour-level main-draw debut in Paris. Ritschard will face Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina in the final round of qualifying on Friday.

Sixth seed Radu Albot came up on the wrong side of one of the matches of the day, with Australia’s Jason Kubler pulling off the upset, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(10-4). Kubler, who also won a three-setter in the opening round, will face Pedro Sousa of Portugal on Thursday for a main-draw spot.

Roland Garros is the only major in which the former junior World No. 1 has not competed in the main draw. Kubler reached a career-high of No. 91 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2018 after reaching the second round of the US Open earlier that year.

Casper Ruud made a quickfire start to his title defence at the Gonet Geneva Open on Wednesday as the World No. 8 eased to a 6-3, 6-1 second-round victory over Benoit Paire.

The Norwegian had endured a moderate European clay season by his standards prior to last week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but Ruud appeared back to his best in his semi-final run in Rome. He brought that form to the Geneva clay, bludgeoning the ball off both wings to overwhelm his opponent at the ATP 250 event.

A bright start from Paire saw the Frenchman break in the third game of the match, but that was as good as it got for the 33-year-old at the Tennis Club de Geneve. Ruud’s accuracy and baseline power helped the World No. 8 reclaim the break immediately as Paire struggled for consistency, and four further breaks of the Frenchman’s serve followed as Ruud raced to a 55-minute victory.

“Everything went my way a little bit,” said Ruud after improving his ATP Head2Head series lead over Paire to 4-0. “I was broken at the beginning, so it was not the best start but then I found my game a little bit better and got some free points here and there.

“It probably wasn’t his best serving performance, so that helped me obviously and I was able to get my game going well.”

Although the solid nature of Ruud’s game was key to his win, the Norwegian also produced moments of inspiration in a complete performance. An improvised volley return while running backwards to retrieve a Paire lob was a particular highlight, as the evening crowd in Geneva was treated to a series of entertaining exchanges between the two players.

Ruud is seeking an eighth tour-level title in Geneva, where his quarter-final opponent will be Thanasi Kokkinakis. The Australian earlier recovered from a difficult start to overcome Federico Delbonis, 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.

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Fourth seed Reilly Opelka earlier notched his first win of the European clay season with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell.

Opelka has been unable to build on his maiden tour-level clay-court title, claimed on home soil in Houston in April, with the American losing opening matches in Munich, Madrid and Rome since that triumph. The 24-year-old put his huge serve to good use in his victory over O’Connell, however, firing 13 aces and dropping just five points behind his first delivery in an 89-minute win.

Opelka’s quarter-final opponent will be Tallon Griekspoor, after the Dutchman brushed past Swiss qualifier Johan Nikles, 6-3, 7-5.

Ilya Ivashka earned his first victory over a Top 20 opponent in 2022 at the fifth attempt with an impressive 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-3 win over third seed Denis Shapovalov. Ivashka bounced back from losing the second-set tie-break to surge to a 4-1 lead in the deciding set against the World No. 15, keeping his composure to complete a two-hour, 17-minute win. The triumph takes the 2021 Winston-Salem champion to his second tour-level quarter-final of the year.

His opponent there will be Joao Sousa, who enjoyed a comfortable 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 25-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili. Sousa had not been past the second round in Geneva since reaching the championship match in 2015, but he broke fifth-seeded Basilashvili’s serve three times in an 83-minute win to improve his ATP Head2Head series lead over the Georgian to 2-0.

Holger Rune’s momentum on the European clay showed no signs of slowing at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Wednesday afternoon.

The #NextGenATP Dane overcame staunch resistance from Adrian Mannarino to book a quarter-final spot at the ATP 250 event in France. Rune saved all five break points he faced before sealing a 6-4, 6-3 second-round win, another solid performance in a breakout season for the 19-year-old on the ATP Tour.

Rune surged to a maiden tour-level title in April in Munich without dropping a set, and rose to a career-high No. 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday, having only broken the Top 100 for the first time in January.

“It was a very difficult match,” said the Dane after clinching his 11th Tour win of 2022. “I knew the conditions were good for him because he plays super aggressive and super close to the baseline, so I really had to try to focus on my game, to try to push him.

“It worked out very well, but of course he’s such a talented player, so it was very tough. But I’m very happy with the way I stayed focussed.”

Rune had demonstrated his resilience in winning a pair of tie-breaks to defeat another Frenchman, Arthur Rinderknech, in his opening-round match. His second-round victory may not have appeared as close as that encounter in terms of the score, but the Dane was still forced to dig deep to unlock World No. 73 Mannarino, whose flat groundstrokes were a handful in the hot and fast conditions in Lyon.

“I’m working day in and day out,” said Rune when asked about his strong form on the clay. “I’m just trying to use every match to play better, to improve myself, and it [was] better today, so I’m going in the right direction.”

A solitary break of the Mannarino serve in the fifth game of the match was enough for Rune to clinch the first set, and the Dane broke at the same stage in the second set as his electric movement effectively nullified Mannarino’s flat groundstrokes. The Frenchman was still able to carve out three opportunities to break back in the sixth game, but Rune remained resilient to hold and complete a one-hour, 48-minute win.

Rune, who competed in November’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, sits third in this year’s Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan. His quarter-final opponent will be French qualifier Manuel Guinard or American lucky loser Michael Mmoh.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Alex Molcan surged to a third tour-level quarter-final of the season with a 6-2, 7-6(4) win over fifth seed Karen Khachanov.

The Slovakian, who reached a second Tour final in Marrakech in April, won eight of nine games from 2-2 in the opening set to take control of his maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with the World No. 24. Although Khachanov rallied from 1-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, World No. 47 Molcan maintained his level to prevail and complete the second biggest win of his career.

Molcan started working with countryman Marian Vajda prior to last week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Vajda, the former long-term coach of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, will have been impressed by his new charge’s display in the 91-minute victory. Molcan is 12-7 for the 2022 season and reached a career-high No. 46 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on 25 April. The 24-year-old will hope Vajda’s influence can carry him to a maiden tour-level crown this week in France.

Standing in Molcan’s way next is Federico Coria, after the Argentine enjoyed an upset of his own against second seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

The 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 17-ranked Carreno Busta is the biggest of the 30-year-old Coria’s career. The Argentine reeled off five games in a row in the second set to recover from 1-3 and complete the win over the six-time Tour titlist. It is the first time the World No. 59 has reached the last eight in Lyon but it will be his fourth tour-level quarter-final on clay of the season. Coria reached the same stage in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in February, and Marrakech in April.

It was 79 and out for former World No. 12 Feliciano Lopez at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

The Spaniard’s record streak of consecutive Grand Slam singles main draw appearances came to an end against Gian Marco Moroni in the first round of qualifying for the clay-court major in Paris. Lopez had appeared at every Grand Slam since Roland Garros in 2002.

Italian Moroni defeated the 40-year-old Spaniard, 6-1, 7-6(4). Lopez reached four Grand Slam quarter-finals during his streak. Three of those came at Wimbledon (2005, 2008, 2011) and one at the US Open (2015).

Andreas Seppi, who entered qualifying this week having appeared in 66 consecutive major main draws back to Wimbledon in 2005, would have taken over the longest active streak after Lopez’s loss. However the 38-year-old Italian fell to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to countryman and #NextGenATP contender Giulio Zeppieri on Monday. Seppi made six fourth-round Grand Slam appearances during his streak — four times at the Australian Open (2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018), once at Wimbledon (2013) and once at Roland Garros (2012).

That result leaves World No. 20 Grigor Dimitrov with the longest active streak of main draw appearances at major tournaments, according to the ITF. The Bulgarian is set to appear in his 45th consecutive Grand Slam main draw in Paris next week.

Fernando Verdasco remains in contention for a main draw spot in Paris after the Spaniard defeated Damir Dzumhur, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, on Tuesday. Verdasco is a consistent performer in the French capital, having reached the fourth round there seven times, including four years in a row from 2007 to 2010. Another former Top 10 star bowed out at the first hurdle, however, as Daniel Masur ran out a 7-6(6), 6-4 winner over four-time tour-level titlist Jack Sock.

Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals contender Luca Nardi’s bid for a maiden Grand Slam main draw appearance started well, with the 18-year-old Italian overcoming the experienced Andrej Martin, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3. Nardi, who sits 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, next faces another prospect, 22-year-old Briton Paul Jubb, who defeated Christopher Eubanks 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(10-4).

There was a dramatic win for World No. 186 Tennys Sandgren, who recovered from 3-6, 1-5 against top seed Thiago Monteiro to prevail 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6 (10-8) in a three-hour, one-minute epic. Sandgren, a two-time quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, has won one main draw match in five appearances at Roland Garros.

Other winners on Tuesday included Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who eased past wild card Luca Van Assche 6-3, 6-3, and Marco Trungelliti, who was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Antoine Escoffier. Trungelliti will be hoping to replicate his runs in Paris from both 2016 and 2017, when he reached the second-round as a qualifier.

Daniil Medvedev had more than one challenge on his return to action Tuesday at the Gonet Geneva Open. Not only did the World No. 2 miss a month-and-a-half due to a procedure for a small hernia, but he had to return on his least-favourite surface: clay.

“It’s tough. I don’t play my best tennis on clay courts. I know that I am capable of making some good results as I did in the past. But for this, I kind of need to be in the zone, which I was not today,” Medvedev said following his straight-sets loss against Richard Gasquet in the second round. “When I’m not in the zone on hard courts, sometimes during the tournament, during the match, I can try to turn it around and sometimes it doesn’t happen.

“On clay [it is] much tougher and usually from what I remember most of the matches — not all of them, but most of them — I’m losing because it’s tough for me to turn something around unless everything goes well straightaway and that’s what happened today.”

Credit goes to former World No. 7 Gasquet, who showed some of his best tennis in his 6-2, 7-6(5) victory. The Frenchman whipped his one-handed backhand around the court and showed impressive speed for a 35-year-old to retrieve drop shots.

Despite that, Medvedev was in with a chance in the second set deep in the tie-break. But he relinquished his opportunity with a double fault on match point. The top seed hit seven double faults in his loss.

“[I made] a lot of errors, a lot of double faults. Just was not playing good enough to win. Had maybe some small bright moments in the second set where I maybe could have won the second set,” Medvedev said. “But again because I don’t feel as confident on clay as on the other surfaces, that’s why I lost 7/5 in the tie-break, finishing with a double fault.

“[It is] disappointing, but I’ve had tougher losses in my career and I just need to try to do better next time.”

The good news is that Medvedev was pleased with how his body felt after his first match for nearly two months. Now the 26-year-old will continue working in hopes of finding better form next week at Roland Garros, the season’s second major. Last year, he advanced to the quarter-finals on the Parisian clay.

“Physically I felt not bad today. I think more days of practice and [I] should be ready for Roland Garros because physically, even right now, my body feels good. Let’s see tomorrow morning, because I haven’t played [a tournament] for one month and a half, maybe two months,” Medvedev said. “Hopefully tomorrow morning it’s going to be good also.

“[I will] have some days of practice before Roland Garros so I’m going to try to work physically and also tennis-wise. Hopefully I can try to find the game I had there last year, which is not going to be easy.”