Last year's finalist, Casper Ruud made it already to the third round of the 2023 Roland Garros, beating Giulio Zeppieri.
No one in this year's draw at the Roland Garros made it further last year than the Norwegian. Last year's champion Rafael Nadal is not competing, so finalist Casper Ruud is the player who made it the furthest.
But the 2023 event wouldn't be without tricky matches. After beating Elias Ymer in the first round of the tournament, the fourth seed played against qualifier Giulio Zeppieri from Italy in the second round of the tournament.
The two had never met before on the ATP Tour, and Ruud certainly knows how tricky it is to play qualifiers. The Italian defeated Alexander Bublik in the first round and wanted to cause another upset also in the second round.
But the first two sets were dominated by the Norwegian. He used one of his two break points in the first set, while Zeppieri couldn't use any of his chances, resulting in Ruud's 6-3 win in the first set-
The second set was even better from last year's finalist. He was once again lethal on his break points, using two of three, while saving all three break points of his opponent. Thanks to that, the Norwegian won also the second set, this time 6-2.
But Zeppieri showed in the third set why he was a tricky opponent for the fourth seed. He saved four break points in the first game and waited for his chance in the tenth game, when he broke his opponent's serve to win the third set 6-4.
Yet, Ruud made sure to avoid an upset in the fourth set. Despite losing a one-break lead, he regained the control of the match in the eleventh game of the fourth set, to eventually win the match 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
In the third round of the tournament, he will either take on Thiago Agustin Tirante or Zhizhen Zhang, one of three Chinese players in the draw who made history at the event.
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