Rune rallied from 0-5 down in the deciding tiebreaker to defeat Flavio Cobolli while Ruud avenged a 2021 defeat to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina under the Court Suzanne-Lenglen roof.

But while Evans prefers a quicker court, Cobolli is a much more instinctive clay-courter; the 22-year-old Italian is coming off a semifinal finish at the Gonet Geneva Open, where he lost to eventual champion Ruud. Breaking twice to nab the third set, he rallied from a break deficit in the fourth to force a final set, opening up a 0-40 lead on Rune’s serve in ninth game of the decider.

Rune mitigated some erratic hitting off his forehand side to save all three break points and ultimately force a tiebreaker, but quickly fell behind in the Sudden Death. Down 0-5 and 2-6, Rune reeled off 10 of the final 12 points to take the match out from under Cobolli and secure victory after three hours and 50 minutes. Awaiting him in the next round is lucky loser Jozef Kovalík, who completed his own comeback from two sets down to shock No. 18 seed Karen Khachanov earlier in the evening.

Over on Lenglen, Ruud and Davidovich Fokina were hard at work replicating the ups and downs of their third-round thriller from 2021; at the time, Ruud was coming off a breakthrough run on clay, having reached back-to-back Masters 1000 semifinals in Monte Carlo and Madrid. But ultimately faded in the fifth set to the Spaniard, who went on to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Since then, Ruud has made his own mark in the City of Lights, reaching the last two finals of Roland Garros and peaked at No. 2 in the ATP rankings, but largely slumped throughout 2023, falling out of the Top 10. The 25-year-old has returned to form and then some in 2024, scoring his first-ever win over Novak Djokovic to reach the Monte Carlo final and defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas the following week to win his first ATP 500 title in Barcelona.