Best comebacks from two sets down at the wildest Roland Garros in recent memory

Fans at Roland Garros. (Unsplash)

The morning after Jannik Sinner's body gave out on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Paris had the specific stillness of a tournament that had just had its script torn up. The clay still bore the footprints of a world No.1 who had been 5-1 up in the third set and couldn't finish it. Somewhere in the draw, Alexander Zverev was doing the arithmetic. 

Defending back-to-back champion Carlos Alcaraz: gone before the first ball, wrist injury, out of Paris entirely. Sinner: gone in the second round, cramping in the heat, 18 of the final 20 games surrendered to a man ranked 56th in the world. And Novak Djokovic — well, Djokovic would be gone by Friday evening. The three men most capable of stopping Zverev from finally winning a Grand Slam had all vanished before the second week. The door wasn't just open; it had been removed from its hinges.

Stars Align for Zverev

Roland Garros 2026 may go down as the year the stars finally aligned for Zverev, but a year earlier, the German was making headlines for entirely different reasons. Turning up to the TNT Sports studio wearing a watch with a functional roulette wheel and a huge price tag, he invited analyst Chris Eubanks, Sam Querrey, and Caroline Wozniacki to each pick a number — with the watch going to whoever was right. 

The ball landed on four, and Zverev left with his timepiece intact. Australian fans who want to try their own luck on the wheel can head to Ignition Australia, which offers roulette in both classic and modern formats, including live dealer tables that deliver an authentic casino atmosphere from home. Roulette is a game that attracts a lot of attention because of its classy atmosphere, high-tension atmosphere, and simple play – anybody can enjoy the game, without needing to commit much time to learning the rules. It’s become popular with the Aussies for precisely that reason, and Zverev’s watch is just one demonstration of how deeply embedded it is in the global consciousness.

This year, Zverev will be hoping fortune is equally kind on a much bigger stage. But the door opening for him — extraordinary as it is — is only half of what this tournament has produced. The other half belongs to the men who made those exits happen, and the specific courage it took to do it.

Juan Manuel Cerúndolo def. Jannik Sinner

The cruelty of what happened on Chatrier on Thursday afternoon wasn't the upset. It was the manner of it. Jannik Sinner, chasing the career Grand Slam — the one title missing from a collection that already spans multiple majors, the dream he'd come to Paris to finish — had this match in his hand. Two sets. 5-1 up in the third, serving for the match, the crowd already moving toward the exits in their heads. Then his body simply stopped cooperating.

What followed is unlike almost anything in recent Grand Slam history: a player reduced, set by set, to a version of himself that could still hit the ball beautifully — forehands drilled from a planted position, muscle memory intact, the champion still visible in the shot — but could no longer move to retrieve what came back. Juan Manuel Cerúndolo saw it, and he used every inch of it. 

Drop shots to drag Sinner wide. Passing shots to the open court. The Argentine won 15 consecutive points in the third set. When Sinner disappeared for a medical timeout at 5-4, 0/40, the crowd on Chatrier fell into the particular hush of an audience witnessing something they can't quite explain. 

The third set fell 7-5. The fourth and fifth went 6-1, 6-1. Cerúndolo claimed 18 of the final 20 games. The match lasted three hours and 36 minutes and produced a scoreline — 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 — that reads like a statistical fever dream. He became the lowest-ranked player to beat a world No. 1 at Roland-Garros since 1998, and the lowest-ranked to do it from two sets down at a major since 1973. 

João Fonseca def. Novak Djokovic

When Fonseca walked onto Philippe-Chatrier 24 hours later, he walked onto a court he had watched Djokovic own since he was three years old. He had grown up with this man as his idol. He had learned tennis in a world where Djokovic won Grand Slams the way other people commute to work. And now here he was, 19 years old, two sets down, 13 winners to his name, the crowd already writing the match off.

Then something shifted. His forehand found its lines. He began driving Djokovic deeper and deeper behind the baseline, refusing to let him settle, hitting the ball as hard as he could for as long as he could. By the end of the 84-minute fourth set — ferocious, relentless, the Chatrier crowd augmented by a sea of green and gold Brazilian flags — Fonseca had 46 winners. He had become a different player between the second set and the fourth, not because Djokovic deteriorated but because Fonseca grew into something extraordinary in real time. 

In the fifth, Djokovic broke to lead 3-1. He levelled at 3-3. At 5-5, Fonseca had three break points and converted the third. In the 11th game, after driving Djokovic back to the baseline for four hours, he hit three drop-shot winners to break through — the most audacious possible way to dismantle a man who invented that shot. He served it out, slamming three straight aces to secure the win. 

Four hours and 53 minutes — the longest match of Djokovic's career at Roland-Garros. The first teenager to complete back-to-back two-set comebacks in 30 years of Grand Slam tennis. The first teenager to beat a former men's champion from two sets down at this tournament since Michael Chang beat Ivan Lendl en route to the title in 1989.