Matteo Berrettini opens his French Open campaign against Marton Fucsovics on May 25, 2026, in a first-round match that puts two out-of-form players on the same court in Paris. Berrettini is the bookies' favourite, but the Italian arrives with little momentum and a ranking outside the top 100.
The head-to-head stands at 1-3 in Fucsovics's favour, which gives the Hungarian a reason to believe he can make the matchup awkward again. He has also won enough on clay to be treated as a dangerous opening-round opponent, even if his recent results have been uneven.
Fucsovics has lost four of his last five matches and was beaten by Prizmic in straight sets in the opening match in Rome. Last season in Paris, he pushed Paul to five sets before going out in the second round, a reminder that his work on clay can still stretch stronger names deep into a match.
Berrettini's form has been no better. He has lost three of his last five matches and fell to Ugo Carabelli in straight sets in the 1/8-Finals in Valencia last week. His last French Open appearance came in 2021, when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, and that run now looks like a distant marker rather than a current reference point.
The tension in this matchup is that Berrettini is supposed to be the more dangerous player on paper, yet he is also the one entering Paris searching for rhythm. Fucsovics is the kind of clay-court opponent who can make an opening round messy, and that makes this one of those matches where the ranking and the betting line do not fully settle the outcome before the first ball is struck.
What happens next is simple: Berrettini gets the first chance to prove that the oddsmakers have it right and that his name still carries weight at Roland Garros. If he cannot impose himself early, Fucsovics has already shown enough on this surface to turn the match into a long afternoon.
