Francisco Cerundolo this Friday rounded off another interesting victory in the Bastad ATP 250, the traditional professional circuit tournament played on clay in Sweden. In just over an hour and a half he defeated Russian Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals. The Spaniard awaits him there Pablo Carreno Bustawhich easily defeated Diego Schwartzman by 6-1 and 6-0. However, there was another joy for Argentina: it is that Sebastian Baez he won 6-2, 6-7 (5) and 6-4 against the Austrian Dominic Thiem and it was also installed in the prelude to the definition.
Cerúndolo, who came from eliminating the Norwegian Casper Ruudmaximum favorite and finalist of the last Roland Garros in the best triumph of his careerstars in a very good week in the Swedish city and continues to advance.
It will be his third semi-final at the ATP level in 2022after reaching that instance in the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro (lost to Schwartzman) and in the Masters 1000 in Miami (lost to Ruud). And he will seek to reach his second final on the big circuit, after falling more than a year ago with Peque in the definition of the tournament in Buenos Aires.
In search of the final, this Saturday he will have to cross paths with a specialist on the surface like Carreño Busta, who swept a faded Schwartzman off the field and ruined the possibility that there would be an assured Argentine finalist. Just one game could steal him the number 14 in the world in an hour and six minutes of action.
Baez lowered Thiem
Báez showed that he continues to strengthen his game by overcoming a demanding test Thiemwho is gradually recovering his best form after a long inactivity.
The 21-year-old rising Argentine took the first set 6-2 and had a match point at 5-4 of the second with his rival’s serve, but he couldn’t make it and the Austrian ended up winning 7-5 in the tiebreak. However, he was able to make it happen in the third chapter in which he won 6-4. It was 2h49 of super action on Swedish brick dust.
The tennis player from San Martín waits for the winner of the duel between the Russian Andrey Rublev and Serbian Laslo Djere, who play next. Rublev, second seed, is the main candidate for the title after Ruud’s elimination and comes with confidence after winning a tight round of 16 match against Federico Coria.
Báez debuted with a solid victory against the Italian Fabio Fognini (64th) by 6-3 and 6-4 and had another good performance eliminating the Spanish Monte Carlo finalist Davidovich Fokina (36th) with a resounding 6-2 and 6-3 in one hour and 19 minutes of play.
For his part, Thiem, former number 3 in the world and currently in position 339, had just achieved a great victory over the Spanish Roberto Bautista Agutseeded four, and snapped a ten-game losing streak this week
Bastad, which takes place on clay courts and will distribute prizes totaling 597,900 euros, had two Argentines who became champions: Mariano Zabaleta from Tandil won the 2003 and 2004 editions, while native of Chascomús, Carlos Berlocq, celebrated in 2013.
