After five days of play, two rounds have been completed in the men’s draw at Roland-Garros 2024. There have been upsets, drama and plenty of epic five-setters. Who lost? Who’s still in? We break down Roland-Garros round two, looking at how all the action unfolded over the last two days in Paris.
Seeds still on track in Djokovic’s quarter
Novak Djokovic’s quarter has been perhaps the most sedate of all so far this French Open. Of the eight seeds in this section, just one has gone home–Adrian Mannarino, in the first round.
Round two still saw plenty of action, however. Lorenzo Musetti looked mighty impressive as he took on Frenchman Gael Monfils, handing the veteran his first loss under lights on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The Italian powered through in straight sets, booking a third-round clash against Djokovic, who also prevailed in three over Roberto Carballes Baena.
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Casper Ruud both fought their way through fascinating five-setters in round two. The Australian got past qualifier Guilio Zepperi, winning consecutive five set matches for the first time in his career. Ruud, meanwhile, escaped a back-and-forth affair against the mercurial Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Shout out to Tomas Martin Etcheverry too, who showed some thick skin defeating yet another French favorite to set up a showdown against Ruud.
Rune survives, Khachanov not so lucky
A memo must have gone out to all Scandinavians to make the second round more entertaining, because Dane Holger Rune also went the distance.
The No 13 seed was cruising at 2-0 against Flavio Cobolli, before he took his foot off the gas. Suddenly, he found himself locked in a deciding set tiebreak, and down 5-0. The 21-year-old dug deep, channeled his inner-Federer, and won 10 of the last 12 points to make the third round.
Karen Khachanov wasn’t quite so lucky. The 18th seed conceded a 6-4, 6-4, 4-2 lead, crashing out in five against Jozef Kovalik. Alexander Bublik (19) and Mariano Navone (31) also fell in round two at the hands of Jan-Lennard Struff and Tomas Machac, respectively.
Watch out for Struff in this quarter, he’s due a deep run at Roland-Garros.
Second-round hiccups for Alcaraz and Tsitsipas
Quarter three of the men’s draw saw no major upsets in the second round, though there were some hiccups. Both Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas–two of the bookies favorites in Paris–dropped sets to players outside the world’s top 80.
It was business as usual for Andrey Rublev, however, with the Russian seeming intent on making an 11th Grand Slam quarter-final. He put away Pedro Martinez 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, setting up a clash against young Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the third round.
Speaking of third-round matches, Ben Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime will be meeting in a fascinating all-North American matchup. Neither had been in great form ahead of the French Open, but one will be getting a spot in the round of 16 this weekend.
Sinner destined for the final weekend
Rounding out the second-round action this week, the bottom quarter of the draw is looking wide open for Jannik Sinner.
The Italian has put any doubts about his hip injury aside, powering past Richard Gasquet in straight sets in round two and Sinner is now facing Kotov for a place in the quarter-finals.
With Sebastian Baez (20) falling in an epic five-setter to his Austrian namesake, Ofner, Sinner’s eighth of the draw is looking mighty comfortable.
Canadian Denis Shapovalov is finding form though, picking up a good win over Frances Tiafoe (25) on Thursday. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist now faces Hubert Hurkacz, who has played nine sets already for his spot in the third round.
Will we see more upsets this weekend? Think you know who’s going to make the quarter-finals?
