Casper Ruud is maintaining his early lead at Roland Garros. Giulio Zeppieri put up a fight in the second round of the clay-court major, but the fourth seed prevailed, defeating the Italian qualifier 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Ruud put on a strong all-around performance for the majority of the three hours and four minutes of play, but Zeppieri used his tough lefty game to great advantage to get back into the match and win the third set. The Norwegian advanced to the third round at Roland Garros for a sixth consecutive year thanks to his consistently deep groundstrokes, which helped him win five of a total of 13 break points.
Ruud, who is now ranked No. 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, has a 14-5 record at Roland Garros, where he made it to the 2022 final match. The 24-year-old resumes his most recent campaign in the French city with a third-round matchup against either qualifier Thiago Agustin Tirante from Argentina or China's Zhang Zhizhen.