Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero wasn’t a name on too many lips heading into the 2019 French Open, but perhaps he should have been. He has, after all, had some fine results on his preferred red clay this year, the highlight surely being his run to the Cordoba Open title during the Golden Swing. It’s a mark of Londero’s pedigree that the man he beat in the final in Cordoba, Guido Pella, arrived in Paris with the most clay-court match wins on Tour this season.
Londero later won through the qualifying at the Rio Open and went on to reach the second round before also qualifying into the Monte Carlo Masters, pushing rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime hard in a 5-7 6-7 loss in the first round. And then to Paris, where he began his campaign with a startling 6-4 6-1 6-3 win over 15th seed and reigning Hamburg and Beijing champion Nikoloz Basilashvili. It was his first match in the main draw at one of the sport’s four Majors.
Buoyed by that victory, the Argentine backed it up by ousting Richard Gasquet, once the great hope of French tennis, in four sets, 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-4, to reach the round of 32. Gasquet may have played comparatively little tennis this season, but he is nonetheless a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist and reached the last eight at Roland Garros just three years ago. Certainly a very creditable win for Londero then against a player ranked 39 places above him in the ATP standings.
His next challenge was to defeat French wild card Corentin Moutet, enjoying a memorable run of his own after victories over Russia’s Alexey Vatutin and 19th seed Pella. Moutet began sharply, twice breaking the Londero serve en route to taking the first set 6-2. But in the second set, Londero turned the match around, winning it 6-3, before claiming a tight third set to seemingly take a stranglehold over the third-round clash.
Moutet, however, was far from finished. Roared on by the raucous French crowd, he stole the fourth set with a late break to take the match the distance. But there, Londero’s greater physicality paid dividends as he weathered the Moutet storm to seal a 2-6 6-3 6-4 5-7 6-4 victory and book his place in the second week at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. Awaiting him there is none other than defending champion Rafael Nadal.
That will surely be a peak too high for Londero to conquer, even if the great Spaniard did look a little short of his best in his four-set win over 27th seed David Goffin in the third round. But win or lose on Sunday, Londero will get the chance to test himself against one of the greatest talents this sport has ever seen on one of its most august arenas. It will certainly be a far cry from the Challenger events where he has, for most of his career, plied his trade. He is also guaranteed to earn 180 valuable rankings points and 243,000 euros for his efforts thus far.
All in all then, not a bad week’s work for the Argentine.
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