Berrettini avenges Sinner in straight sets to reach his first Roland-Garros quarter-final in five years
Matteo Berrettini won against Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) on Monday. He’ll play the winner of the match between American Frances Tiafoe, the No 19 seed, and Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the next round
Matteo Berrettini, Roland-Garros 2026 | © M. Baucher / PsNewz
Matteo Berrettini, the Italian world No. 105 playing his first Roland-Garros since 2021, beat Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerúndolo 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-6(6) on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Monday afternoon to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time since his 2021 run – five years since he had last walked into the second week here, four years since his last Grand Slam quarter-final at any major, and the 7th of his career.
Berrettini broke once in the opening set to take it 6-3, broke once in the second to lead 6-5, and was broken back to force a tie-break he ran 7-2. The third was the tighter contest, with both players holding to a tie-break, but Berrettini closed it 8-6 to seal the straight-sets victory – and to confirm what the form lines had suggested.
He produced the higher level when it mattered, won the bigger points on serve, and dictated long enough stretches of every set that the inevitable Cerúndolo recovery into the breakers could not turn into a fifth set neither man would have wanted.
Berrettini’s first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 Australian Open
It is Berrettini’s first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 Australian Open, ending a four-year run in which injuries – an abdominal tear, foot surgery, a sequence of withdrawals that had dropped him out of the top 100 for the first time since 2018 – had defined his career more than his tennis. He leaves the round of 16 as one of only two former Grand Slam finalists still in the men’s draw, alongside second seed Alexander Zverev – the third, Casper Ruud, was beaten in the round of 16 on Sunday evening by 19-year-old Brazilian João Fonseca.
For Cerúndolo, the run ends on the deepest of his career and on the result that will define his year: the Sinner upset, the Landaluce marathon, the five hours and 58 minutes that broke his body before Berrettini broke his serve. He will rise to the world’s top 50 in the live rankings, the first appearance at that ranking tier of his career, and will leave Paris as the player who beat the world No. 1 in the second round of the only major it had been thought he would not contest.
Berrettini’s quarter-final opponent will be the winner of Frances Tiafoe, the American 19th seed, against compatriot Matteo Arnaldi — both of whom played their fourth-round contest later on Monday. The road to a Grand Slam semi-final, after five years, runs through one more match.
