The American Taylor Fritzthirteenth in the world rankings, showed the Argentine the exit door of the Madrid Masters 1,000 Francisco Cerundolowho attempted a comeback but ultimately failed 6-1, 3-6 and 6-3 in one hour and 47 minutes, close to midnight at the Caja Mágica.
Fritz’s 250th career victory also made him the first American to reach the semifinals since the Madrid tournament was played on clay (2009).
His next rival is the Russian Andrey Rublev, which fell into the quarters of the Spaniards Carlos Alcaraz (4-6, 6-3 and 6-2).
Fritz already knows what it’s like to lose to the Argentine, last year at Roland Garros, and he started strong, with 5-0 and feeling that he was clear about what he had to do: endure a few exchanges and then was fully attacked. with his forehand.
The Argentine could not repeat the great sensations of his previous match, when he left Alexander Zverev without arguments and took him out of the tournament. He couldn’t find depth on his shots and the balls in the middle of the court were a well from which Fritz took the oil.
After losing the first set, Cerúndolo started the second on serve and tried to see the match in a different way. But he had to find a way to resist, at least reach, the American services and he was not up to the task.
The set changed course when the Buenos Aires native earned his first two break points in the eighth game and converted the second with a perfect drop shot. He confirmed, albeit with difficulty, his serve and the match went to a third set.
Fritz’s first serve percentage dropped to 50% in the early games and Cerúndolo took the opportunity to run him over. The game was even, with Cerúndolo being more stable, very confident at the net and successful with parallel shots.
Both held serve until Frittz earned the first break point of the set at 4-3 and converted it with the help of tape. 5-3 and serve: a golden opportunity for San Diego. He finished the game with a blank game.
No Argentinian has reached the semifinals in Madrid since Juan Martin del Potro in 2012.
Cerúndolo has not won two in a row since February in Rio de Janeiro, so he leaves Madrid with a positive balance of three wins, in the round of 16 against Zverev, the fourth seed.
Source: La Verdad
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