“If he wins, I have to win”: Francisco Cerúndolo joins brother Juan Manuel in the Roland-Garros third round on the family’s day in Paris
Francisco Cerúndolo reached the Roland-Garros third round as fans shouted news across the court that his brother Juan Manuel was toppling world No. 1 Jannik Sinner — making the Argentines only the third set of brothers to go that deep in Paris in the Open Era.
Francisco and Juan Manuel Cerundolo | © Instagram / F.Cerundolo
Francisco Cerúndolo was three sets into his own first-week battle with Hugo Gaston when the news started reaching him from the next court, shouted across by spectators between points. His younger brother Juan Manuel was beating the world No. 1.
The elder Cerúndolo, the 25th seed, came through 2-6 6-4 6-2 6-1 on Court Simonne-Mathieu to reach the third round of Roland-Garros. At more or less the same moment on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Juan Manuel was completing the upset of the tournament, ending Jannik Sinner‘s 30-match winning streak.
It made the Cerúndolos only the third set of brothers to reach the third round in Paris in the Open Era, after the Zverevs and the Mayers.
A family plan for a unique situation
Francisco had not wanted the bulletins. “People started screaming to me, ‘your brother is winning, your brother is winning’, keep going,” he said. “I was, like, ‘come on, boys, stop talking to me, because I’m playing the fourth set, I’m super stressed here’. People started saying, ‘your brother won, your brother won’.”
The family had gone in with a plan for the rare problem of two sons playing at once. “Before the matches, we said with the family that we have to split – some to my brother, then some to me,” Francisco said. “But I told them, okay, ‘start with my brother, and then you see how it goes’.” He picked up the score in fragments. When he sat down at a set all and looked up, the box was still empty; someone told him Juan Manuel was two sets to one up. “Okay, I said, good.”
The pressure to win
By the fourth set the news was no longer in fragments, and it changed the stakes of his own afternoon. “I was 3-1 up in the fourth, and then I say, okay, if he wins, I have to win. Please focus, focus, focus.” He held himself together to close it out. “It was tough to play the fourth set, but I’m super happy with the win.”
There is an extra thread in the family’s history with Sinner. It was Francisco, the older brother, who twice beat the Italian on the way up, including on clay in Rome in 2023 – and on Thursday it was the younger one who took him down on the sport’s biggest clay stage. Both Cerúndolos are now into the last 32, on the same day, for the first time at this tournament.
