The fourth day of the Córdoba Open left good feelings for the Argentine tennis players, of which three advanced to the quarterfinals. In a first round that began the triumph of Federico Coria (67 °) after the abandonment of his rival and with the defeat of Guido Pella (1018 °), who continues to give good feelings on his return to the circuit. But the main dish of the Cordovan evening came with the great victory of Francisco Cerundolo (31st), who left behind all the doubts he had physically and was left with a match that seemed lost against Federico Delbonis (131st), lraising a match point and sealing his pass to the quarterfinals.
The surroundings of the Mario Alberto Kempes Stadium lived, like few others, a pleasant night. Without the stifling heat that had been threatening the previous days, the penultimate matchup for the round of 16 went to Bastad ATP champion. After his defeat in Finland against Otto Virtanen (181st) and a muscular ailment that put his participation in the ATP 250 in doubt, andhe eldest of the Cerúndolo brothers debuted with an intense level in the first set. Despite being broken in the fourth game and trailing 3-1, the man from Buenos Aires broke three consecutive serves of his compatriot and took the partial 6-3 after 45 minutes.
However the Zagreb hero, who gave Argentina the winning point to obtain their only Davis Cup, brought out his best game. In barely 38 minutes, Delbo, who found himself at a 3-2 disadvantage, broke Cerúndolo’s service three times to dispatch with a resounding 6-3 and send the game to the third set. After a high-flying partial, Delbonis, who had just fallen in the quarterfinals of the Concepción challenger, managed to prevail against the second best Argentine racket and began to dream of victory, which would have given him his best victory since 2021. when he had beaten canadian Happy Auger-Also (21st at the time) at the Masters 1000 in Rome.
Cerúndolo’s impressive comeback
However, the Buenos Aires tennis player, who until the last moment he did not confirm his presence on the field, came back from a third set for the memory. After a break from Delbonis in the fourth game, and confirmation in the next, the azulino came to be 5-2 up. Even, in the ninth game, the Davis champion he had a match point, which Cerúndolo managed to pick up and break the serve. After the 5-5 tie, Francisco returned to keep his rival’s service and had the serve in his hands to win the match. Finally, after 2h31m of play and six match point opportunities, the eldest of the brothers sentenced the victory by 6-3, 3-6 y 7-5; and he will face off in the quarterfinals against Federico Coria (67th), whom he will face on Saturday in Córdoba.
In the wake of the day, Wedding ringwho came from imposing himself a day ago against the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (78th), he managed to show his integrity despite the wear and tear and endured more than his rival, Marco Cecchinato from Tano (93rd), who withdrew when the match was over. 6-3 y 3-1 in favor of the Argentine On the other hand, Guido Pella (1018th) fell to the Bolivian Hugo Dellien (138th) by 6-3 and 6-4, who had already eliminated Pedro Cachín (66th) in the previous round. At the end of the day, Diego Schwartzman (28th) faced Juan Manuel Cerúndolo (114th), in the last round of 16 match.
