Forza Azzurri: When Berrettini plays at Roland Garros. Cobolli and Arnaldi are also on the court.

Jannik Sinner was eliminated at the end of a dramatic match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, but Italy’s hopes at Roland Garros are still very much alive, as is the dream of seeing an Italian tennis player win Paris again exactly 50 years after Adriano Panatta’s triumph. On Saturday three Azzurri will take the court for third-round matches, all of them placed in the top part of the draw, which was that of the world number one.

The lower level of opponents in this part of the draw, at least on paper, makes Italian fans dream, hoping for a possible qualification in the final by an Azzurro: in this crazy Roland Garros anything can happen. It begins with Flavio Cobolli: the world number 14 takes the court at 12 noon against U.S. hopeful Learner Tien. In the only previous match the American won but Cobolli is favored on this surface. The Florence-born tennis player has yet to drop a set and in the first two rounds has beaten Pellegrino and Wu.

At 1 p.m. Matteo Berrettini takes the court, who will face Argentina’s Francisco Comesana. Both tennis players are outside the world’s top 100, but we know that if the Roman tennis player is on form there are few who can hold him back. The Azzurro gave important signals by overcoming in three sets the French Rinderknech, number 22 in the world rankings, while in the first round he had eliminated Fucsovics. At Roland Garros, Matteo has never managed to go beyond the quarterfinals, which he achieved in 2021.

The other Italian on the court on Saturday is Matteo Arnaldi: the world number 104 will face Belgium’s Collignon no earlier than 2:30 pm. Struggling for some time, Arnaldi regained his enchantment and confidence in the early rounds of the French tournament by beating two prestigious names such as Tallon Griekspoor and Stefanos Tsitsipas. In Paris, the Azzurro achieved his best result in 2024 by reaching the fourth round.