After a marathon final, the Argentine Gustavo Fernández lost the definition of Roland Garros

The best plays of the defeat of the Argentine Gustavo Fernández against the Japanese Shingo Kunieda by 6-2, 5-7 and 7-5 in the Roland Garros final

Gustavo Fernández was one step away from enlarging his story in Argentine tennis. The Lobitoon court number 14, he could not against the Japanese Shingo Kunieda and lost the Roland Garros final 6-2, 5-7 and 7-5

The number three in the ITF ranking, who in the previous phase had defeated the Spanish Martín de la Puente (9 on the planet) by 6-4 and 6-1 and the number one in the world, the British Alfie Hewett, by a double 6- 1, was not fine in the key moments of the game and succumbed to the talent of the Japanese, second best seed in the competition.

After a poor start, the Argentine, winner of this contest in 2016 and 2019, managed to make his game prevail at times to win the second set. In the third round he started better, but after an irregular game, in which the two tennis players constantly broke down, Fernández failed at critical moments. The native of Río Tercero, although he managed five aces against only one of his opponent, was lower in percentage with his first serve: 71 against 61. There was also a marked difference in break points, since the Japanese won 9 of 12, while the albiceleste only 7 of 13.

His experienced rival (38 years old) showed why he is one of the legends of the circuit by reaching his eighth French Open (previously crowned in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2018). She in her showcase also has 11 Australian Open, one Wimbledon, eight US Open and three Paralympic gold medals (Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Japan 2021).

“He is a great winner, the best in history”, Gustavo Fernández bluntly blurted out during the award ceremony, heaping praise on his doubles partner, with whom he will later seek to be crowned at the French Open against the British Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, number one in this modality. “Thanks to all my team, we worked very hard during the week to get back to the highest level. Thank you all for the support and see you next year”, concluded the also winner of the Australian Open (2017 and 2019) and Wimbledon (2019).

The Cordovan, who played a Grand Slam final again since Wimbledon 2019, came to this match with very good feelings since he had been undefeated since March and had not lost on clay throughout the season. Before this tournament, during the week of May 25-28, he won the Annecy International Open de France. On his way he left local Christian Gross (6-0 and 6-0), Japanese Oda (6-1 and 6-1) and Frenchman Nicolas Peifer (6-0 and 6-0). The previous week he was also crowned at the Tram Barcelona Open in Barcelona, ​​where he was able to leave on the way the Spanish Francesc Tur (6-1 and 6-0), the Dutch Spaargaren (6-1 and 6-0), the British Alfie Hewett (3-6, 6-0 and 6-3) and the Japanese Shingo Kunieda (6-3, 5-7 and 6-1).

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