The Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo finished this Tuesday in the Italian tournament Jannik Sinner with a comeback in three sets, by 6-7 (3), 6-2 and 6-2, which put him in the quarterfinals of Rome Masters 1,000where Norwegian will be measured Casper Ruud.
“It was one of the happiest days of my career. Great game against Jannik, who is a great player. Winning a game like this with people against me gives me a lot of confidence. I hope this kind of game will help me, I need it to start fighting to be regular in the final rounds of tournaments”, the Argentine celebrated on the center court of the Foro Itálico as soon as the match ended.
And it is the local favorite and eighth seed of the tournament imposed against all odds, but with arguments and with solvency. He did so, with a great comeback after the first stake where he started poorly, giving up his serve, but where he managed to redirect himself to take it to a ‘tie-break’ where not he could do with a very solid Sinner.
However, he managed to change the game. He came out with a lot of power in the second set and broke the Italian in two straight sets (3-0), although he could not confirm the second ‘break’ of his serve. He didn’t care as he broke again in the seventh (5-2) and put the bet on the path, extending the game.
In a decisive one, Cerúndolo’s legs did not tremble. He didn’t feel the pressure that Sinner did. The Argentine stepped up and grabbed the first serve from his rival to maintain the lead. At 4-2 on the scoreboard, he destroyed the Italian with a loveless game on his serve and proved a great success in the next, the fifth to the top-10.
In the quarterfinals they will face a Ruud who won a month ago in Barcelona.
On the other hand, the German Yannick Hanfman surprised the Russian on Tuesday Andrei Rublev with an effective match that they resolved in three sets, 7-6 (5), 4-6 and 6-3, to get through to the quarterfinals.
The German, ranked 101, knocked out the number 6 and favorite to pass the round unexpectedly on the Italian clay. Hanfmann withstood the Russian onslaught in the first set where he could have broken, but he let two ‘break’ balls escape before becoming more solid in the tiebreaker where he won the set.
The Russian reacted quickly in the second set and took Hanfmann’s serve in the first game, enough to extend the match into the third round where he also started very strongly, again with a ‘break’, but which was unavoidable the surprise of the day.
extra energy
Hanfmann recovered and saved four breaking balls that gave him the extra energy to revive and sink the Russian with every right hand until he broke in the sixth game (4-2) and put victory on course.
In the quarterfinals, the winner will be measured in the duel between German Alexander Zverev and Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Source: La Verdad
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