Berrettini reaches French Open quarter-finals after injury comeback

Matteo Berrettini turned a long, injury-frayed return into one of Roland Garros’s most compelling comeback runs, beating Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) to reach the French Open quarter-finals for the second time.

The 30-year-old Italian had not played in Paris since 2021 and had missed the previous four editions of the tournament because of injuries. His victory also delivered his first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 US Open and his seventh major quarter-final overall, a reminder of how high his level once stood and how far he has had to climb back.

Berrettini did not treat the win as a sentimental finish. He said tennis remained the “love of my life” and acknowledged how difficult the recovery has been, saying there were moments when it was “really tough” to come back, hit the ball again and trust his confidence. The message matched the match data: Berrettini, who started the tournament ranked No. 105, saved two match points against Francisco Comesana in the third round before extending his stay in Paris.

That escape mattered because it framed this result as more than a routine seed-driven advance. Cerundolo had already knocked out world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the second round, so Berrettini’s win came against a player who had already reshaped the bottom half of the draw. It also came with real ranking consequences. Berrettini rose 58 places to No. 47 in the ATP live rankings, putting him within reach of re-entering the top 50 for the first time since July last year.

For Berrettini, the comeback has been defined less by a single surge than by a series of stops and restarts. He returned to Roland Garros after five years away, with the tournament’s clay demanding the sort of physical repetition that his injury history has repeatedly interrupted. Yet the result showed a sharper version of the same player who once reached the 2021 Wimbledon final and climbed to world No. 6: a big server, a composed breaker and, over three sets against Cerundolo, a man who held his nerve when the margin narrowed.

The broader draw only sharpened the contrast. Roland-Garros noted that the 2026 men’s quarter-finals included three players aged 20 or younger for the first time this century, making Berrettini’s run stand out as an unusually veteran breakthrough in a youthful field. Whether it proves a durable second act or a brief resurgence will depend on what follows, but in Paris he looked less like a survivor than a contender reclaiming ground.