There\u2019ll be at least two Argentine tennis stars in the 2026 Australian Open third round, as Francisco Cer\u00fandolo (world No.20) and Tom\u00e1s Etcheverry (61) won their respective games on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were the only positives for the day, as Thiago Tirante and Francisco Comesa\u00f1a were unable to progress.<\/p>\n
Cer\u00fandolo was the first to seal his ticket for the next round. Argentina\u2019s top ranked men\u2019s player completed the job with flying colors, steamrolling Bosnian Damir Dzumhur (66) 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, in a 1 hour and 37 minute match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy, I felt comfortable in the game,\u201d Cer\u00fandolo told the press after the match. \u201cApart from having my serve broken at the start, I was playing well. It was a tough match and I pulled it off with great conviction. Right now I don\u2019t want to tinker with anything, I\u2019m just looking forward to resting with these good feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll be the third time the 27-year-old reaches the third round in Melbourne, as he did in 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n
His next rival will be another heavy hitter: former world No.5 Andrey Rublev, who defeated Portugal\u2019s Jaime Faria 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Cer\u00fandolo leads the head-to-head tally against the Russian, having beaten him in three of their four previous encounters, although the last time they faced off was in 2024.<\/p>\n
Etcheverry wins to fans\u2019 delirium<\/p>\n
After that, it was Etcheverry\u2019s turn to extend his run, as he matched up against Brit Arthur Fery (185), who was fresh off beating world No.22 Italian Flavio Cobolli.<\/p>\n
Fery proved no push over, fighting tooth and nail before finally succumbing in the tie break of the first set, as Etcheverry took it after nearly an hour and 20 minutes. After that, the La Plata native took control of the match and managed to impose himself, sealing the win 7\/6 (1), 6-1, 6-3 in two hours and 45 minutes, to the delirium of Argentine fans in the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at home, we are at home here in Australia,\u201d he said as he prepared for the aftermath interview. \u201cThere are a lot of fans here, so many Argentines. I wasn\u2019t expecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such was the ruckus created by the Argentine fans that the official Australian Open account on X shared a video of the chants during the match and Etcheverry\u2019s post-win celebrations with the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I enjoy the most. I love playing tennis with the fans. It\u2019s like the Davis Cup, only we\u2019re doing it at a Grand Slam. I love playing tennis with this energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win will undoubtedly help Etcheverry keep up his resurgence. It\u2019s only the second time since last October he\u2019s piled up two wins in a row, and the first time since the 2024 US Open that he makes it past the second round at a major.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was hard,\u201d he admitted. \u201cNow I\u2019m smiling again, enjoying my tennis again. We\u2019re privileged to do what we love the most. Looking at [the fans], it\u2019s a memory I\u2019ll treasure all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll now face world No.10 Kazakh Alexander Bublik, who\u2019s enjoying his career-high ranking after winning a tournament in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Tirante and Comesa\u00f1a out<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t all good news for Argentines in the Australian Open, as Thiago Tirante (103) and Francisco Comesa\u00f1a (68) bowed out.<\/p>\n
Tirante fell 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to United States player Tommy Paul (20), never being able to find his best tennis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a solid couple of days for the Argentine player, however. His win in the first round will likely see him jump back into the top 100 in the men\u2019s ATP rankings, professional tennis\u2019 governing body, as he prepares to lead the Argentine team that will face South Korea in Busan on February 7 and 8 in the Davis Cup Qualifiers.<\/p>\n
It was a similar story for Comesa\u00f1a, who faced a difficult task against Frances Tiafoe (34) from the U.S. The Argentine fell 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a rain-delayed affair played late into the Australian night.<\/p>\n
The only other Argentine remaining in the men\u2019s singles draw is Sebasti\u00e1n B\u00e1ez (36), who\u2019s set to take on Argentine-born Italian Luciano Darderi (25) in Wednesday\u2019s morning shift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019ll be at least two Argentine tennis stars in the 2026 Australian Open third round, as Francisco Cer\u00fandolo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4723,15775,57046,168451,79,1068,213198,213199,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-711815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-francisco-cerundolo","10":"tag-francisco-comesana","11":"tag-sebastian-baez","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-thiago-tirante","15":"tag-tomas-etcheverry","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115935668688317572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}