Rome Masters: Cerúndolo lost to Casper Ruud | The highest ranked Argentine in the ATP lost in his quarterfinal duel against the top ten Norwegian

The Argentine tennis player Francisco Cerúndolo could not extend his winning streak and fell this Wednesday against Casper Ruud 7-6 (5) and 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome, which was left without its top favorite after the fall of the Serbian Novak Djokovic against the Danish Holger Rune.

Cerúndolo (31 in the ATP world ranking) was close to achieving his goal against the number four in the world, but it was not enough to settle among the top four of the tournament that is played in the Foro Italico and that is the prelude to the Grand Slam Roland Garros.

Despite the defeat against Ruud, whom he had been able to beat twice –last year in Bastad, Sweden, and last April at the Conde de Godó, in Barcelona–, and against whom he had lost in the semifinals of the Miami Masters in 2022, the 24-year-old Argentine starred in a great performance in Rome with successive wins over the Chinese Yibing Wu (57), the French Gregoire Barrere (63) and the Italian Jannik Sinner (8).

Now, the Norwegian top ten will meet in the semifinals with the rising Danish Rune (7), who surprised by eliminating Djokovic (1) after beating him 6-2, 4-6 and 6-2 after two and a quarter hours of play. in an intense game that suffered an interruption due to rain.

Djokovic, 35, conquered the Masters 1000 in Rome six times, the first in 2008 and the last one last year, but this time he couldn’t beat Rune, who eliminated him again as happened last year in the Masters 1000 final. from Paris.

The quarterfinals will be completed this Thursday with two matches: Daniil Medvedev (Russia, 3) against Yannick Hanfmann (Germany, 101) and Borna Coric (Croatia, 16) against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5).

Meanwhile, in the women’s draw there will be two matches for the quarterfinals: the Polish Iga Swiatek (1) will meet not before 3:30 p.m. with the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (6) and the Spanish Paula Badosa (35) will face the Latvian Jelena Ostapenk0 (20).

The quarterfinals will be completed this Thursday with two games: Daniil Medvedev (Russia, 3) against Yannick Hanfmann (Germany, 101) and Borna Coric (Croatia, 16) against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5),

Meanwhile, in the ladies’ draw, for the quarterfinals, the Latvian Jelena Ostapenk0 (20) defeated the Spanish Paula Badosa (35) 6-2, 4-6 and 6-3 and the Polish Iga Swiatek ( 1) is measured with the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (6).

The Masters 1000 in Rome, which is played in parallel between the ATP and the WTA, will distribute prizes of 8,637,966 euros and throughout its history it has had four Argentine tennis players as champions.

Those who lifted the trophy in Rome were Guillermo Vilas in the 1980 edition, José Luis Clerc was crowned in 1981 and Alberto “Luli” Mancini in 1989.

However, the most outstanding of the Argentines was Gabriela Sabatini, who was crowned at the Foro Italico four times: 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1992.