Shelton and Darderi follow Sinner out of Roland-Garros, two clay dark horses gone on the night the world No. 1 was beaten
Two clay-season dark horses gone in the shadow of Sinner. Ben Shelton (No 5) lost 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 to Belgian world No. 62 Raphaël Collignon. Luciano Darderi (No 14), the Rome semi-finalist, was beaten 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 by Argentina’s Francisco Comesaña.
Luciano Darderi and Ben Shelton, Roland-Garros 2026 | © PsNewz
Ben Shelton, the American fifth seed, and Luciano Darderi, the 14th-seeded Italian who had reached the Rome semi-finals only a fortnight ago, were both beaten in the second round of Roland-Garros on Thursday evening – two of the men most often mentioned as potential dark horses on clay this spring, gone on the same night that the world No. 1 Jannik Sinner had collapsed in the heat earlier in the afternoon.
Shelton’s exit came on Court 9 against Belgium’s Raphaël Collignon, the world No. 62, who beat him 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 without dropping a set. It was the first top-five win of Collignon’s career, the second top-10 win, and the biggest result of his life.
Shelton, who arrived in Paris off a Munich title last month but had then lost four of his next six matches, never settled. He was broken once in each set and never broke back. Collignon will face the winner of Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round.
A long list of casualties
Darderi’s defeat was the longer story. The 23-year-old Italian, beaten 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 by Argentina’s Francisco Comesaña over five sets, had been one of the reference on Tour on clay for two seasons – a semi-finalist in Rome, the Santiago title in February, and the kind of upward momentum that pre-tournament previews had spotted as a potential quarter-finalist on this surface. The bottom half of the draw – already missing Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Bublik and Jiří Lehečka – continues to thin.
Comesaña, the world No. 102 who had cracked the top 100 only after the 2024 Oeiras Challenger title, was a 2-0 head-to-head leader against the Italian going in – including a clay win in 2022 – but a heavy outsider this time given the year both had been having. He found a way. It was his first time reaching the third round at a Grand Slam since 2024, and the fifth top-20 win of his career. Comesaña will face the winner of France’s Arthur Rinderknech, the 22nd seed, against Italian Matteo Berrettini in the third round.
Between them, Shelton and Darderi take the men’s seed casualty count to nine at Roland-Garros 2026. With Sinner himself gone from the top half, the tournament has lost five of its top 14 seeds in five days, and the projections that had looked locked in before the first ball are no longer recognisable. Carlos Alcaraz, two-time defending champion, was already absent through injury before any of this began.
