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ROLAND GARROS – The Canadian men mastered the clay on Monday at Roland Garros.
Two up, and two through as both Liam Draxl and Alexis Galarneau won three-setters to win their first career matches at Roland Garros and move on to the second round.
First up was Draxl, who made his Grand Slam qualifying debut a year ago here, but was under the weather as he dropped his opener against Filip Misolic.
It turned out to be not such a bad loss, as Misolic not only qualified, he also took out Denis Shapovalov in the main draw.
This year, even if the results have been up and down, Draxl was in fine form in a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 win over 22-year-old Russian Ilia Simakin.
Here’s what it looked like.
As little as Draxl has played at this level, the No. 259-ranked Simakin is even more of a rookie; this was his first-ever match at a major.
Draxl had a match point in the second set tiebreak, but couldn’t get through then. He won the third set fairly routinely.
“I’m trying not getting too high not getting too low. I’ve had had some good wins like qualifying for Australia but I’ve also been losing some Challenger matches. So just trying to just stay neutral and just keep keep doing my thing,” Draxl said after the win.
He played three qualifying events last year – Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. But he wasn’t able to win a match.
That turned around in January in Australia. Draxl won three, including a final round against the tough American Mackenzie McDonald. He went out to Damir Dzumhur in the first round of the main draw.
Now, he has former Canadian Davis Cupper Phil Bester working with him.
Galarneau gets it done
Many hours later, Draxl’s Davis Cup teammate Alexis Galarneau began another quest to make the main draw at a major.
He has tried nine times before, and has never gotten past the second round.
This time, against No. 192-ranked Alex Barrena (two spots higher than Galarneau), the Quebecer pulled one out: 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-7 in the match tiebreak).
He saved two match points on his serve, at 5-6 in that third set.
Galarneau also was up 7-3 in the match tiebreak, which is first to 10 points. But in a flash, it was 7-7 and that was the kind of moment, throughout his career, when Galarneau has often flinched.
Not this time. He was bold with his groundstrokes and changed direction down the line a lot, while Barrena seemed to content to push the ball in play and wait for a short ball to attack. That boldness paid off handsomely. He also, as he has done more often lately, was looking for opportunities to come forward. And he made a lot of those points.
It was a pretty gruelling affair. A lot of longish rallies played at a furious pace, late in the day when it was cool, but also very humid with rain in the vicinity.
Next up on Wednesday
On Wednesday, Draxl will take on the No. 1 seed in qualifying, Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands.
The two have met once; they played an indoor hard court Challenger in Oeiras, Portugal last year, and Draxl won in straight sets.
Galarneau will face a player with a somwhat similar profile as Barrena in 23-year-old Pedro Boscardin Dias of Brazil.
Before shocking No. 9 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili on Monday, Boscardin Dias’s last match was a month ago at the Savannah Challenger. He lost to Draxl in a third-set tiebreak in the first round, on the American Har-Tru.
That was about as much variety as he’ll allow himself. Boscardin Dias has played every single match in 2026, other than during that American Har-Tru swing of three tournaments, on the red dirt. He played 31 tournaments in 2025 – all of them on clay, mostly at the Challenger level and nearly exclusively in South America.
He, too, had never won a match at the Grand Slam qualifying level before Monday. That said, he had never PLAYED one before Monday.
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