One Cerúndolo went out at Roland Garros on Saturday. The other made history. Hours after 25th seed Francisco Cerúndolo was knocked out of the French Open, his younger brother Juan Manuel battled into the fourth round for the first time in his career, outlasting Spain’s Martín Landaluce in the longest match the tournament has seen in years.
Cerúndolo won 6-4, 6-7(9), 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(10-8), rallying from 6/8 down in the deciding-set match tie-break to take the final four points after five hours and 57 minutes. It was the longest match in Roland Garros history since the fifth-set super tie-break was introduced in 2022. The margins were almost too fine to measure: Cerúndolo finished having won 214 points to Landaluce’s 213.
The result capped a breakthrough week that has turned the 24-year-old Argentine, ranked No. 56 in the world, into one of the stories of the tournament. On Thursday he had stunned world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, recovering from two sets down to win 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 as the Italian wilted physically in the Paris heat — reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. Two days later, he went one better, and the second week now awaits.
His reward is a meeting that carries an edge for Argentine fans. Cerúndolo will face Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, who earlier reached the fourth round by ending the run of another Argentine, Francisco Comesaña, in a five-set thriller of his own, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(15-13).
The run also reshapes his career. By reaching the last 16, Cerúndolo has guaranteed he will break into the top 50 of the ATP rankings for the first time, climbing to a live No. 44.
The brothers’ diverging fortunes summed up a turbulent week for Latin American tennis in Paris. Francisco, the higher-ranked of the two and long regarded as Argentina’s most realistic deep-run threat on clay, fell earlier Saturday to American Zachary Svajda in five sets. A day before that, Brazil’s 19-year-old João Fonseca produced the upset of the tournament, coming back from two sets down to beat Novak Djokovic in a near-five-hour epic.
With two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz sidelined by a wrist injury and Sinner now gone, the men’s draw is open for a first-time major champion to emerge for the first time since the 2024 Australian Open — and Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, against the odds, is still standing in it.
