And Roland Garros blue and white tennis will live in history thanks to the good present of that young generation of players who are already part of the elite. Because for the first time in 17 years, Argentina will have four representatives among the seeds of the French Grand Slam. They will be Sebastian Baez, Francisco Cerúndolo, Tomas Etcheverry y Mariano Navonewho will achieve an unprecedented achievement for this sport just by going out on the field for his first match.
The one born on July 9, one of the great revelations of the circuit this season, will become the first player of the Open Era to debut in a “big” being seeded. Located in the 32nd place of the ranking, he will start as the 31st favorite in the main draw, thanks to the last minute withdrawal of Use Lehecka (24th) due to a back injury.
Navone, 23 years old, will thus achieve an unprecedented milestone for world tennis, since never before has a tennis player played his first Grand Slam, directly entering the draw as one of the best 32 ranked players.
Yes, there were five who were preclassified in their second “big ones”, among them Guillermo Pérez Roldán, who also did it on French clay in 1988, when he was 15th, after having debuted the year before in that same competition as 51st in the world; and Alberto Mancini, who entered the 1989 Paris Major as 13th, after playing it in the previous season as 65th. The other three were the American Peter Rennert in Australia 1979; the canadian Happy Auger-Also at Wimbledon 2019; and the Russian Aslan Karatsev in Paris in 2021.
A lot has changed in Navone’s life in the last year. Twelve months ago, he was 224th in the ranking, he had not yet won any title in the Challenger Tour (today he is six) he had not even debuted in a tournament ATP. And he was preparing to compete in his first Grand Slam qualifier in Paris (he lost in the first round). He then showed up in the previous phases of Wimbledon and the US Open and in January he also played the Australian Open, without even being able to add a victory. But on the South American clay tour he clicked.
The starting point for its explosion was Rio de Janeiro, where he surpassed the classification, won his first ATP match and ended up playing the final with Báez, who beat him easily in two sets. That performance allowed him to break the top 100 barrier: he jumped from 113th to 60th place. And he didn’t stop there.
Navone won his sixth Challenger title in Cagliari. Photo Twitter @ATPChallenger
In the last two months he was a semi-finalist in Marrakech and finalist in Bucharestwon his sixth Challenger in Cagliari and played his first two Masters 1000, in Madrid (lost in second round with Holger Rune putting up a fight) and in Roma (he fell in his first presentation before Luciano Darderi). It was noted in Lyon this week, but he dropped out due to an overload in his right shoulder, so as not to risk it and arrive at Roland Garros well and be able to make history.
Navone will be the fourth Argentine among those seeded by the “big” French team. The list is headed by Báez as the 20th favorite, and is followed by the eldest Cerúndolo, as 23rd, and Etcheverry, as 28th.
The last time Argentina had had a quartet of representatives among the seeds in this tournament was in 2007. In that edition, David Nalbandian was 15th; Juan Ignacio Chela18°; Guillermo Canas19°; y Agustín Calleri, 26°. In total, there were 15 national tennis players in the main draw, 12 entered directly, one from the qualy and two like lucky losers. The best performance was that of Cañas, who reached the quarterfinals.
Since then, one or two Argentines were almost always counted among the first 32 of the main draw. Except in 2019, when Juan Martin del Potro appeared 8th; Diego Schwartzman17°; y Guido Pella, 19th. The tandilense, Leonardo Mayer y Juan Ignacio Londero (who also entered by ranking) reached the round of 16.
Báez is the player with the most victories on dirt this season. Photo REUTERS/Claudia Greco
In 2024, in addition to the four seeded teams, they already have their place secured in the draw Federico Coria (59°), Pedro Cachin (106°) y Thiago Tirante (109°); and five others entered the second round of qualifying.
Baez, 23, will seek to get past the second round in Paris for the first time and has reason to be excited about achieving that goal. The 20th in the world is having a great 2024. On the slow court tour of South America he established himself in Rio de Janeiro y Santiagotaking his personal harvest to six titles.
He is also the player with the most victories on clay this season: until Monday, he had a record of 17-6 (he could improve it this week in Geneva), with more celebrations than, for example, Stefanos Tsitsipas (13-3) o Casper Ruud (13-4). And on the dust tour prior to Roland Garros he went from lowest to highest and has just played at a good level in Romawhere he defeated Rune (12th) in the third round before saying goodbye to Hubert Hurkacz (9°).
Cerúndolo played great tennis in Madrid, where he dropped Zvevre, fifth in the world. Photo Thomas COEX / AFP
Francisco Cerúndolo23rd in the ATP, had an irregular start to the year, but he rediscovered his tennis a few weeks ago in Madrid, where he had his best match of the season to beat in the round of 16 Alexander Zverev, number five in the world. And after falling into Magic Box in the next round against Taylor Fritzcould not overcome the second instance in the Foro Italico.
The 25-year-old from Buenos Aires had his best performance (so far) in a Grand Slam last year in Paris. He defeated Fritz (then ninth) in the third round and made it to the round of 16, where he was eliminated by Rune (6th).
Etcheverry, 24, is the one who went the furthest on the French clay among the Argentines who entered directly into the box. The player from La Plata, 29th in the ranking, was one of the revelations of last year, when he beat Jack Draper, Alex De Miñaur, Borna Coric y Yoshihito Nishioka and reached the quarterfinals. And in that instance he couldn’t beat Zverev.
Etcheverry reached the semi-finals in Barcelona, where he beat Norrie in the quarterfinals and lost to Ruud. EFE/ Alberto Estevez
In 2024, a muscle tear in his right leg that he suffered in the Buenos Aires quarterfinals stopped his good performance and kept him off the field for a month. In Barcelona he once again played great tennis (he beat Cameron Norrie and he said goodbye in the semis against Ruud, then champion) and, like Cerúndolo, he seeks this week in Lyon to finish fine-tuning his racket for Paris.
With four seeds and a historic debutant, Argentine tennis already knows that it will experience a special Roland Garros.
Two Argentines in the women’s team after 15 years
The second Grand Slam of this season will also be historic for the women’s branch of Argentine tennis, which for the first time since 2009, will have more than one player in the main draw of the tournament.
15 years ago, they played in Paris Gisela Dulko y Emilia Salerni. The Tigrense, then 42nd in the ranking, reached the third round, in which she lost to the Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, 20th seeded. And the Rafaelina, who entered with a protected ranking after recovering from a stress fracture in her right foot and a discomfort in her Achilles tendon, could not make her debut with the German Kristina Barrois and months later he announced his retirement.
Podoroska was a Roland Garros finalist in 2020. Photo REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
In this edition, Nadia Podoroska y Lourdes Carlé They went straight into the main draw.
The Rosario, 59th in the world, was the great revelation of the tournament in 2020, when it started in the qualy and reached the semifinals, where she lost to the Polish Every Swiatek, to sign his best performance in a Grand Slam. And after leaving behind an injury to the hamstrings in her right leg that forced her to stop for almost a year (between August 2021 and June 2022), she managed to recover some of the lost ground (she was 36th) and wants to shine again on the Paris brick dust.
Meanwhile, Carlé, 83rd in the ranking, will have her absolute debut in a “big one.” She had played the rankings Wimbledon and the US Open in 2022 and 2023 and that of Australia and the French Grand Slam last year, without luck. After breaking into the top 100 in February, he continued to climb positions and win his first title WTA 125 (equivalent to the men’s Challenger), in April in La Bisbal D’Empordá, he secured a place in the Paris draw.
In the coming days a couple more Argentines could join the main draw. Because Julia Riera y Solana Sierra They are still on track in the classification.
2024-05-22 09:01:54
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