Vallejo Ends Paraguay's 23-Year Grand Slam Drought

Adolfo Daniel Vallejo walked to the net late in the second set to shake Cameron Norrie's hand, and with that a nation's 23-year wait ended. The Paraguayan had just won his first match in the main draw of a Grand Slam.

The moment held more than a scoreline

The result read 7-6(7), 2-0 retired, but the numbers understate the fight. The opening set was a war of attrition, with the Paraguayan aggressive on serve and fearless in his shot-making, while Norrie used variety of pace and spin to force errors. Towards the end of the set Norrie was feeling the effects of a rib injury suffered in Geneva, yet carried on and held two set points in the tiebreak. Vallejo came back to take it 9-7, closing a brutal set of 57 minutes. The rib began to tell on Norrie's serve, and after two games of the second set the Briton shook his opponent's hand and withdrew.

Vallejo was seizing a first taste of this stage. At 22, he was living his first main-draw experience at a major; he had tried the qualifying rounds at the Australian Open in 2025 and 2026, but only at Roland Garros, with a ranking high enough to enter directly, did he end his country's drought. The last Paraguayan to win a Grand Slam match, Ramón Delgado, was courtside in support.

A step long in the making

The win did not arrive from nowhere. Vallejo reached the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time in Madrid, and played the final of the Valencia Challenger. In Valencia he was beaten by Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic days before travelling to Paris. That form carried him into the top 70 of the rankings, a career high. "By winning several matches I am very well mentally, with a lot of confidence, understanding the game much more," he said, describing a player still growing into these situations.

The symmetry was not lost on him. "It is a privilege to represent my country, having him and my whole team, and many people from Paraguay supporting me," he said of Delgado's presence. Delgado's last Grand Slam win had come against Sebastien Grosjean in the first round of the 2003 US Open. Two decades of silence, closed by a man who was a child when it began.

A second round against the 17-year-old Frenchman Moïse Kouamé awaited. For one afternoon in Paris, though, Paraguayan tennis had a present tense again.