Unseeded Belgian follows in coach’s footsteps to fell top-five seed
Raphael Collignon has ensured just one top-eight seed remains in a wide-open top half of the men’s draw after humbling fifth seed Ben Shelton to reach the third round at Roland-Garros on Thurday night.
On a day when world No.1 Jannik Sinner was sent packing in a five-set boilover, the unseeded 24-year-old went on a tear, harnessing a heavily Belgian crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen to derail the American’s bid 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
It marked his second top-10 win after denying Alex de Minaur en route to Belgium’s Davis Cup upset of Australia in Sydney last year and left fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime as the only top-eight seed in the top half.
“It was incredible [atmosphere]. It's very emotional because being Belgian, I used to come here to Roland-Garros quite regularly,” Collignon said as he fought back tears.
“So, just being able to play on this court was a dream. And then to win in front of my loved ones, in front of my family, it's incredible.”
The Belgian connections in the crowd were strong with world No.40 Zizou Bergs, his doubles partner in Paris and Davis Cup teammate, as well as his coach – also Belgium’s Davis Cup captain – former world No.38 Steve Darcis urging him on.
The two-hour, three-minute victory, in which he claimed 43 of 49 first-serve points and never faced a break point, made the world No.62 the first Belgian to land a top-five win at a Slam since coach Darcis stunned Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 13 years ago.
“Yeah, when you have a coach like Steve, it's easy, you just have to listen,” he said. “We prepared well for the match. He watched quite a few of Ben's matches, he gave me some pointers, but above all, it was about trying to focus on myself, on my serve, trying to be aggressive, not letting him dictate the game too much, and I think I managed to do that well today, so I'm very happy and very proud of myself.”
In his fourth appearance in Paris, Shelton was vying for his third straight third-round showing on the clay, having last year made the last 16 where he tested eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.
He was coming off his best clay-court swing, having picked up the silverware in Munich to become the first American to claim a title bigger than an ATP 250 on the surface since Andre Agassi in Rome in 2002.
Collignon though came out of the blocks stronger, breaking in the seventh game and he kept his foot down untroubled on serve to take a one-set lead.
With neither player separated at 5-all in the second, Shelton – who frequently turned to his father and coach Bryan Shelton for answers – attempted successive forays to the net only to be brought unstuck.
He cut a flustered figure and a fruitless appeal to the umpire on a close baseline call didn’t help his cause as Collignon took a commanding two-set lead after two hours.
A break point at 3-all went awry but two games later, the Belgian pounced, drawing the backhand error long and whipping up the Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd before serving it out with barely a glitch to hand Shelton his first loss in 28 completed matches to a player outside the top 30 at a Slam since the 2023 US Open.
Collignon will next face either former finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas or Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
ROLAND-GARROS
18 May - 7 June 2026
