Etcheverry and Cerúndolo, 2 Argentines for the round of 16

Neither of the two will enter the match as a favorite, although their opponents will also be wary of facing players who have good results on clay and a fighting spirit that won’t make it easy for them. Cerúndolo, seeded 23rd, has a positive win record against his opponent, having won three out of five matches, and has never lost to him on clay. This surface is not the best for the 14th seed, who was defeated by the Argentine in the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000 a few weeks ago. Cerúndolo also beat him on grass in the final of Eastbourne 2023 in Queens that same year.

Paul won their first two encounters in 2022 on the grass of Eastbourne and in 2023 on the hard courts of Toronto. “I think it’s going to be a very tough match,” said the Argentine about the match that will be played tomorrow in the third slot on Court 14, the fourth largest in the complex. However, a look at Tommy Paul’s track record shows that clay is not his surface, unlike Cerúndolo, who still remembers last year’s round of 16 match against Denmark’s Holger Rune. A four-hour, five-set battle decided in a super tiebreak that thrilled the Suzanne Lenglen court crowd, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(10-7).

It remains Cerúndolo’s best Grand Slam result, while Etcheverry surpassed it in 2023 and aims to do so again. The player from La Plata faces a tough challenge against Norway’s Ruud, the player with the most wins this year, 37, with two recent clay titles in Barcelona and Geneva, the latter just last weekend. The two-time finalist in Paris has not lost before the final since 2021. He is aiming for an eighth consecutive win, without a doubt he is a tough opponent.

“He is a clay player, he dominates that surface. It’s going to be a match where I have to be very sharp and take advantage of the few opportunities I might get,” said the player from La Plata. The quarterfinalist from 2023, who came to this edition after losing the final in Lyon to another Frenchman, the young Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, won his first-round match against Arthur Cazaux in four sets and benefited from Arthur Rinderknech’s retirement in the second round. Against the latter, Etcheverry recovered from losing the first two sets, held on in the third, and benefited from the Frenchman’s withdrawal after he injured his foot by kicking a wall, thinking it was a tarp.

But the Argentine knows he will have to give his best against Ruud, who will not make it easy for him. Etcheverry experienced Ruud’s quality a few weeks ago, losing in the semifinals in Barcelona in two sets. Etcheverry will need to recover some of the tennis that in 2023 allowed him to be among the top 16. In the quarterfinals, he faced the German player Alexander Zverev, who was returning after months of recovering from an ankle injury sustained in a Roland Garros semifinal the previous year. The player from La Plata fought hard but ultimately lost in four sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. EFE lmpg/dgp/mcd