By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle/ROLEX
On the Greenhouse Court, Stefanos Tsitsipas felt his focus fade and his game wilt.
Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante outclassed and overwhelmed 2021 Roland Garros finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round in a stunner on scenic Court Simonne Mathieu.
Playing just his second major main draw, the world No. 167 Gigante scored gigantic upset.
It marks the first time Gigante has won back-to-back Tour-level matches in his career and snaps Tsitsipas’ streak of six straight years reaching at least the French Open fourth round.
"For sure was my big win of my career, for sure," Gigante said. "I'm really happy to play every points of this match. Tsitsipas, he's a very good player. I do a really big win."
Afterward, a disconsolate Tsitispas said Gigante simply outplayed him and called his performance “immature.”
“I think he did that exceptionally well. He handled the pressure moments very well,” Tsitsipas said. “Played mature tennis. I seemed to be playing immature sometimes during the match, and obviously I'm not extremely happy about that.
“So I've got to compartmentalize myself a little bit and try and get back to my old routines, the way I was able to construct certain things and not have things kind of flow out of control the way they did today. But on the other hand, I also have to obviously give credit to him, because he made me reach that stage too.”
It marks the fourth straight Slam Tsitsipas has failed to survive the second round. Former world No. 3 Tsitsipas fell in the first round of the 2024 US Open and 2025 Australian Open.
Though Tsitispas was the far more experienced player reaching Roland Garros quarterfinals in four of his last five appearances, he confessed today “my experience sometimes stabs me.”
Tsitsipas committed 49 unforced errors in a lost that has ranking repercussions. The 26-year-old Greek falls out of the Top 20 for first time since making his Top 20 debut in August 2018 after run to Toronto final.
“I still want to be the best player in the world and I still want to do great things around this sport that I chose to play,” Tsitsipas said. “My attention and focus is always to try and improve any aspect of my game.
“I'm an optimistic person. I don't want to, you know, use any excuses or anything like that, so my entire focus is on how can we come to solutions, solve certain things. It's a constant puzzle.
"I'm ambitious, and I want to prove it on the tennis court. Things have definitely changed over the last couple of years, and I know that I find myself in a completely different position now.”