Fognini, all easy at the debut in Paris. Now it’s up to Alcaraz

The first Italian to pass the turn of Roland Garros is the eternal Fabio Fognini who overcomes the Australian Alexei Popyrin in three sets for 6-4 7-5 6-4 in 2 hours and 17 minutes of play that amused the spectators a lot of the field named after Simonne Mathieu, the third most important of the plant. A flawless performance for the Ligurian, very careful and careful to never give too many chances to his rival. Popyrin holds up well the first few rounds of serving, tries to charge up when he wins some sporadic points from the baseline, but on the 4 all he sinks.

The match

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The Australian commits four free mistakes when leaving the service and for Fabio there is the break which he confirms by closing the first fraction 6-4. At the beginning of the second set Fognini cancels 5 dangerous break points: two in the second game and three consecutive in the fourth. These are the only critical moments for the Ligurian who from the bottom does what he likes. On 5 equal in the second set, Fabio forces the pace, the Australian gets a warning for a waste of time and the blue reaches the break point. The good one is the third that earned him the break and once again Fognini confirms the advantage. With two sets to recover, Popyrin unravels, goes down 0-4, then recovers one of the two breaks, returning down to 3-4. But in the moment of closing, Fabio finds his concentration, missing a match point at 5-3, but he gets three more consecutive points at 5-4. For the enthusiasm the first is missing by sending a straight attack into the corridor, but the second is the good one. One more sweep of forehand and the game goes to archive

15 years of Paris

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In the second round Fognini awaits the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp who beat the qualified Pavel Kotov 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2. For Fognini, the love story with the Parisian tournament is 15 years long. In 2007, after passing the qualifiers, Fognini lost in the first round to Juan Monaco (3-6 2-6 6-1 6-2 6-4), in 2009 he was defeated again on his debut by Igor Andreev (1-6 6-3 6-1 3-6 7-5), in 2010 he wins his first game by beating Nicolas Massu (6-1 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-3) and then repeats on the central eliminating Gael Monfils in an epic match won by 2-6 4-6 7-5 6-4 9-7. In the third round, however, he bows to Stan Wawrinka (6-3 6-4 6-1). In 2011, as number 49 in the world, he reached the quarter-finals for the first and only time in his career, beating Denis Istomin, Stephane Robert, Guillermo Garcia Lopez and Albert Montanes for 11-9 in the fifth set after having canceled 5 match points for the Spaniard . For most of the fifth set Fabio plays from a standstill for cramps and two days later is forced to forfeit before taking the field against Djokovic. In 2012 he beats Mannarino and Troicki and then gives in three sets to Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, in 2013 he beats Beck and Rosol but loses in three sets (7-6 6-4 6-4) against Rafael Nadal. In 2014 he still does the third round (wins again over Beck and Bellucci), but he surrenders to Gael Monfils (5-7 6-2 6-4 0-6 6-2). In 2015 he lost in the second round to Benoit Paire (6-1 6-3 7-5), in 2016 he was eliminated on his debut by Marcel Granolles, in 2017 he beat Tiafoe and Seppi, but gave in to Stan Wawrinka (7-6 6- 0 6-2), in 2018 eliminates Andujar, Ymer and Edmund before surrendering in five sets to Marin Cilic (6-4 6-1 3-6 6-7 6-3), in 2019 still eighth with victories over Seppi, Delbonis and Bautista Agut before the stoppage with Alexander Zverev (3-6 6-2 6-2 7-6). Finally in 2020 he lost his debut from Kukushkin and last year he surrendered in the third round to Federico Delbonis.