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Day 4 Preview: Three to watch

Sixteen third round qualifying matches fill Thursday’s schedule. We hand-pick three of the best

Jaime Faria, Roland-Garros 2026 qualifying second round
©Julien Crosnier / FFT
 - Alix Ramsay

➡️ Thursday May 21 order of play

 

Court Suzanne-Lenglen, third match

Jaime Faria vs Lukas Neumayer

It is one thing to have a fabulous day at the office; it is quite another to come in the following day and do it all over again. Jaime began his campaign at Roland-Garros by beating Grigor Dimitrov, the former world No.3, in three fiercely competitive sets. And then he came back and did for Colton Smith in three sets the next day, too. On Thursday he has Lukas to deal with, the 23-year-old from Salzburg who is ranked 71 places below Jaime at No.188. They have never played each other before so this is uncharted territory. Can Jaime make it three in a row?

Court 12, first match

August Holmgren vs Facundo Diaz Acosta

If August can win today in May, then stand by for some serious celebrations. Last summer, the Dane came through qualifying at Wimbledon and went on to beat Tomas Machac, then ranked No.23, to reach the third round. And when match point was over, the celebrating began (he appeared to have brought most of Denmark with him to the court). At the time, he was ranked No.192 and he had never played a Grand Slam main draw match until that week. But, oh, did he make the most of his chances. He has not reached such dizzy heights again (he lost in the first round of qualifying in both New York and Melbourne) and clay is very different from grass but you never know: he is one match away from that main draw place.

Court 13, first match

Andrea Pellegrino (ITA) vs Marco Cecchinato (ITA)

The all-Italy showdown for that place in the main draw. This could be fun. We all know that Marco had his famous run here back in 2018, coming through qualifying and beating Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. Andrea cannot match that record: this is his fourth trip to Paris and this – reaching the final round of qualifying – is his best result. But Mr Pellegrino has the wind in his sails; he reached the fourth round in Rome just days ago and it took Jannik Sinner to stop him (Jannik has done that to most men on the ATP Tour this year). Can Marco turn back the clock to that summer of 2018 or will Andrea sail by him and into the main draw?