The Argentine NextGenATP star has inspired each other with his older brother Francisco Cerúndolo throughout their young careers as they have built on their success. An important moment for family support came this season, when Juan Manuel was out due to injuries.
Last week, Juan Manuel returned to the winner’s circle by winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title of the season (fourth in his career) in Buenos Aires. In front of an energetic Argentine crowd, the 20-year-old defeated compatriot Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 in the final.
The Argentines have combined to lead the season with 19 Challenger titles. Juan Manuel is the 14th different Argentine champion this year, tying the record for most different champions from a single country in a single season on tour (also USA in 2006, France in 2011). The wait and the hard recovery work paid off for the Buenos Aires native.
In 2021, Juan Manuel was one of only four players to claim a title at Tour and Challenger level. His three Challenger titles (Roma-2, Como, Banja Luka) came after his title at the ATP 250 event in Cordoba. ‘Juanma’ moved up the rankings en route to making his ATP Tour main draw debut in his homeland. He didn’t stop there.
The then World No. 335 became the first Argentine to win a title on his debut and the youngest Argentine champion (19 years, three months) since Guillermo Coria (19 years, one month) won Viña del Mar in 2001. The standout southpaw has booked a ticket to the 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next ATP Finals in Milan, Italy.
This season, the 24-year-old Francisco followed in his younger brother’s footsteps by claiming his first Tour title in July, when he triumphed at the ATP 250 event in Bastad, Sweden. Like Juan Manuel in 2021, Francisco also claimed a Challenger title (Santa Cruz, Bolivia) in January. The right-hander is one of only six players to have won a Tour-level title and a Challenger title in 2022.
When Francisco, No. 29 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, lifted the trophy in Sweden, Juan Manuel was preparing for the Tampere Challenger. He made sure to see his brother be crowned champion.
World No. 148 Juan Manuel has turned his attention to having a consistent run during the Challenger-level end-of-year tour of South America. The southpaw is set to compete the next two weeks in Rio de Janeiro and Coquimbo.
The Argentine left-hander has conducted an interview with ATPTour.com joking about his earliest memory of him and his brother’s tennis, explaining his relationship with his older brother, commenting on the ATP Challenger win in Buenos Aires the previous week, talking about the injury that has left him practically without competing this season, recalling his first ATP 250 title, sharing the joy that his brother has won his first ATP 250 title and his good season, expressing his wish.
first memory of tennis
“Both of them we were born with a racket of tennis”.
contact with his brother
“My brother and I continue to motivate and learn from each other. We give each other advice and motivate each other with things like, ‘If I can do it, you can do it too.’ His achievement this year inspired me to keep going, we stay in touch a lot.”
ATP Challenger Buenos Aires
“I didn’t expect to win the tournament. It was my second tournament after almost two and a half months, and before that I didn’t compete regularly. Winning now, being healthy and playing in front of my people at home was very nice. It was a relief. It is the best Challenger that I have won, among the four that I have. The atmosphere was amazing. Camilo and I had a lot of people cheering us on. That’s something you don’t see anywhere other than your home.”
Injury
“The injury was really frustrating because 2021 was amazing for me. When I was starting to play ATP, I tore my psoas muscle [ubicado en la región lumbar inferior de la columna], also because of a hip problem. Then we realized that my hip was fine, it was more the tendon and the muscle. All my results that I got last year disappeared because I couldn’t play. It made me angry because when you play, you want to put your 100% into every match, and I couldn’t do that.”
ATP 250 Córdoba
“Cordoba was a dream. I was playing qualifying and I thought, ‘If I can win a qualifying match, it will be a good tournament!’ Then I started winning and I couldn’t believe anything. When I was in the quarterfinals, I was like, ‘Wow, what’s going on!’ So I had the confidence and it happened.
It was like everything I dreamed of since I was a child, winning at home, all my friends and family were there. Now looking back, I learned a lot from that week. It was like the beginning of my career.”
His brother’s first ATP 250 title
“When my brother was playing the final in Bastad, I was training in Finland. My coach put on TennisTV between our practices and I watched as many points as I could. It was a very important final for him and I was playing against a friend of mine, Sebastián Báez. It was a very nice match, both it isn having an amazing year”.
Goal
“With all the injuries I’ve been through this year, now my only goal is to play regularly. Playing three tournaments in a row would be amazing for me and having the consistency to win and try to play as much as possible is more important than ranking and tournaments right now.”
