Tirante writes new chapter in breakout season

Thiago Agustin Tirante is in no rush to make his way from the court even after three hours on a sun-baked Parisian afternoon.

One of nine Argentines through to the second round at Roland-Garros – the most since 2008 – he was the first of his countrymen through to the last 32 after dismantling the 21st seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Recovery routines could wait. The 25-year-old had never progressed this far at a Slam and with fans rushing courtside to embrace him, he had all the time in the world for them.

“Obviously, I have dreams, and I was here and all, but it's like it just happened over time,” the world No.60 said. “Obviously, I set goals for the year before it starts, but it's something that unfolds, and, as I said, I focus on myself so I don't get distracted or look ahead to the future.

“I like to keep improving myself as a person, as a player, day by day, tournament by tournament … I never imagined it. This is all new for me, obviously, being in the third round of a Grand Slam and on these stages, but I’m doing something I love.”

A junior No.1 seven years ago, Tirante first picked up a racquet playing at La Cumbre, a tennis club his grandfather ran in La Plata.

His peers and compatriots, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Sebastian Baez and Juan Manuel Cerundolo – who on Thursday outlasted world No.1 Jannik Sinner in five sets to join him in the third round – all cracked the top 100 well before him.

This season his persistence finally paid dividends.

“I think I believe in me more than I expected. I can take the win because of my mentality and my team,” he told rolandgarros.com.

“Trust and belief in my team as well, because that is very important. You have to take it in your mind, in your body, and trust and believe in what they say. So maybe that’s the key. And yes, maybe the age, I am 25 right now, maybe it was this year, maybe it was the moment.

“I'm very happy outside the court as well, so I think that's the other thing. I am very happy that I am playing this kind of tournament, and I really enjoy it off the court.”

The victory over Davidovich Fokina wasn’t entirely out of the blue. Tirante reached the fourth round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time in Rome leading in where he claimed top-20 wins over Flavio Cobolli and Cameron Norrie, while at the preceding Madrid Masters, he denied world No.15 Tommy Paul to reach the third round.

Also facing Paul, it was a straight-sets defeat in the second round of January’s Australian Open – rather than one of his notable victories on clay – that gave him the conviction that this season would be different.

“Yes, the match in Australia that I lost in the second round with Tommy Paul,” he said. “Maybe that match showed me that even if I lost, I was there with the level, and it was super close. Even though I lost, I think, that match.

“Then I think I trust and believe in me more than the other years in this moment. That was the key that I showed the level that I am playing now.”

A huge fan of Juan Martin del Potro growing up – “he doe a lot of things for Argentina” – Tirante could reach the second week of a major for the first time should he find a way past a third Spaniard, Pablo Carreno Busta, next.

Courtside celebrations out of the way, recovery routines are now key and one especially helps Tirante clear the mind.

“I like to read because I don't want to think too much about tennis or the next match,” he said. “I think I am a very chill person, and I like to do things like that – go to a cafe, read a book before I sleep, or listen to music.

“I like novels, maybe thrillers as well. I read Pablo Borges recently. It helps because I don’t like to spend so much time in my head thinking about tennis and what I have to do tomorrow or what I have to improve on the practice court or in the match.”

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