With what ranking could I reach Roland Garros?

Roland Garrosthe great brick dust event of the season, will start in eleven days and will represent for Francisco Cerundolo an opportunity to continue improving. The 24-year-old from Buenos Aires is going through a great moment in the European tour of slow courts, perhaps without such outstanding results as that semifinal in Miami 2022 that marked a break in his career, but with very good performances and some resounding victories against rivals of the hierarchy . And in the Paris event, which he will arrive as the highest ranked Argentine in the world ranking, he could feed his crop and even reach his best ranking (if he doesn’t do it before).

The eldest of the Cerúndolos took a step forward in this 2023 on the tour prior to the French Grand Slam. Last year, the first in which he focused almost exclusively on the major circuit of professional tennis, he barely won a main draw match before landing in the French capital. He lost in the qualys of Munich and of Madridsaid goodbye in the debut in Romaafter overcoming the previous stage, and reached the second round in Lyon.

This season, with a place assured in the main draw of the most important tournaments, he played Montecarlo, Barcelona y Madrid. In the Monegasque tournament, he was eliminated in the second round, but he took a win against Cameron Norrie, 14th in the ranking, in the initial. In it Count of Godoachieved the best victory of his career in the round of 16, beating Casper Ruudat that time three in the world, although later he lost in the quarterfinals with Daniel Evans. And after an unexpected stumble in the Magic Box (lost in his first match against Pedro Cachín), returned to a good level in Roma.

In it Italic forum, started with two huge comebacks against the Chinese Yibing Wu57th, and the French Gregoire Barrere, 63°. In the round of 16, they beat the local Jannik Sinnerone of the most talented players in the Next Gen, who at 21 years old is already number eight in the world, in a match in which he went from low to high and ended up dominating with high-flying tennis. And after that victory -the second for him against a top 10 this season-, he fought against Ruud, who beat him in two very even sets and put an end to his adventure in the Italian capital.

The fall did not allow him to climb to 22nd place in the standings, which would have been his best position (in July 2022, he was 24th). On Monday he will appear 28th, but in the coming weeks he will have more chances to surpass his best ranking. Looking beyond this contest, two possible scenarios emerge, which would allow him to add a lot in the rest of this tour.

The first: that after passing through the Italian Masters, he focuses directly on Roland Garros. In that tournament he will defend just 10 points, since in the last edition, the second in which he played the main draw, he could not overcome the initial round when he fell in three sets against the British Evans.

How much would you need to add in Paris to surpass the 24th place that is, up to now, your ceiling? They would have to reach the round of 16 to finish with more than 1,485, which are the points that Bautista Agut holds today in the 23rd place. Not an easy task, considering that this would mean winning three matches, something he has not achieved so far in any Grand Slam. The third round in Australialast January, with victories against Guido Pella y Corentin Moutet and fall before Very happy Augeris listed as his most successful performance in this category of tournaments.

In addition, as the 32nd seed (the entry list closed four weeks ago, when he was a little lower in the ranking), he could already cross paths in the second round with one of the top seeds for the title.

The second scenario: that before Roland Garros, he decides to play Lyonone of the ATP 250 that will be played next week and in which he would start as the fourth seed. A good performance on that date could allow her to arrive in Paris in his best position, or at least very close to it.

If it screams champion in Lyon – where the first three favorites are Norrie, the American Tommy Paul and the Spanish Pablo Carreno Busta-, Francisco would leave that tournament as the 22nd in the world, with 1,550 points.

If he is a semifinalist, he will then have to reach the eighth in the French Grand Slam to touch his best ranking. And if he plays in the final, it will be enough for him to reach the second round in Bois de Boulogne to get it.

The dream of the top 20? It is getting closer for the porteño. Could you make it happen on this brick dust tour? Mathematically, yes; but better not to get ahead. Today, Francisco’s goal is to break his own ceiling. And he knows that he has what. It is that the man from Buenos Aires -who has been the best ranked Argentine since February, except for a period of three weeks at the beginning of April- is playing great tennis and feels comfortable on the slow European courts and confident with the work he is doing. And that is a perfect combo to continue growing and improving.

The panorama of the other Argentines

The other five Argentines in the top 100 will go to Roland Garros with different objectives, possibilities and needs. The one who will put the most at stake will be Diego Schwartzman. He smallwho after losing his debut in Rome will drop to 92nd place in the ranking, has to defend 180 points in Paris, since last year he reached the round of 16 and said goodbye to Novak Djokovic. A poor performance would see him drop out of the top 100 rankings for the first time in almost ten years.

The porteño, who in 2020 played the semis in Bois de Boulogne and reached the eighth step of the ATP, he does not compete this week. In recent days, he shared videos on his social networks in which he was seen training in the Rafael Nadal Academy At mallorca. And this Wednesday, it was confirmed that he entered the main draw of Lyon, benefited by the loss of the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka.

Sebastian Baez40th, reached the second round at Roland Garros 2022 (he said goodbye to Alexander Zverev) and will have to revalidate 45 points. The man from Buenos Aires started with the right foot his way in the Turin Challengerwhere he is the top favorite and beat Italian Riccardo Bonadio in his debut, and has already secured his place in the Lyon main draw, where they will also play Thomas Etcheverry (61°) y Pedro Cachín (68°).

The man from La Plata, who fought before losing in the second round in Rome against Djokovic and is already in the quarterfinals of the Bordeaux Challenger, he will seek to continue adding filming to get to Roland Garros in the best way, where he can greatly feed his ranking. In 2022, he lost in the first round to Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

Cachín -He was eliminated in the initial instance in the Foro Itálico and this Wednesday he beat the Bolivian Hugo Dellien in the round of 16 Challenger of Oeiras, where he is the first seed- will have to defend 61 points in the French Grand Slam. Last year he lost in the last round of the qualyentered the main draw as lucky loser and was then knocked out in the second round.

Frederick Coria, 90th, also has a chance to add a lot in Paris, where he will put only 10 points at stake. He was eliminated in 2022 in the debut by Alex Molcan. The man from Rosario could return next week (he is one drop away from entering Geneva as an alternate), after almost a month of inactivity due to a pectoral muscle injury that forced him to retire in mid-April in his duel against the Romanian Radu Albotfor the first round of Banja Luka.

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