Francisco Cerundolo Makes History with Victory Over Alexander Zverev in Madrid Masters 1000

Francisco Cerundolo achieved one of the most significant victories of his professional career and earned his ticket to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters 1000: he eliminated the German Alexander Zverev, number 5 in the ranking and two-time champion of this important powder tournament. brick that also serves as preparation for the Roland Garros that will be held towards the end of May.

One of the best Argentine tennis players today won 6-3 and 6-4 in an hour and a half of play at the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, in what was the first confrontation of his life against someone who knew how to be number 2 on the planet. . It is the second most notable victory of his career taking the rival’s ranking as a parameter, since in 2023 he had surpassed the then number 3 Casper Ruud in the ATP 500 in Barcelona.

The 25-year-old player arrived in Madrid ranked 21st in the ATP ranking, behind his compatriot Sebastián Báez (19th) and ahead of Tomás Martín Etcheverry (27th). He is currently the only albiceleste in the race at the Madrid Masters 1000 and will face the North American Taylor Fritz (13th) in the quarterfinals, who beat the Polish Hubert Hurkacz but previously left Báez in the way.

Cerundolo’s performance is exciting, considering that in front of him he had a tennis player who rose to number 2 in the world in 2022 and is currently in 5th place. At 27 years old, Zverev has accumulated 21 titles, including the 2023 ATP Finals, the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and five Masters 1000 crowns (2018 and 2021 he rose to the top in Madrid). In addition, he was a finalist at the US Open in 2020 and played the final of the Madrid Masters 1000 in 2022.

Fran will add what he did in Madrid to his interesting list of notable victories: it is the third of his career against a Top 5 and the eighth against the Top 10 lot. He had previously beaten Casper Ruud (5th) in Sweden, Andrey Rublev (8th) in Hamburg, Felix Auger-Aliassime (6th) in the Miami Masters 1000, Ruud himself (3rd) in Barcelona, ​​Jannik Sinner (8th) in the Rome Masters 1000, the American Taylor Fritz (8th) at Roland Garros, and again to Ruud (8th) at the Paris Masters 1000.

Alexander Zverev is currently 5th in the world and was champion of the Madrid Masters 1000 twice (Photo: Reuters/Juan Medina)

The last time an Argentine managed to reach the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters 1000 was in the 2012 edition, when Juan Martín del Potro defeated the Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in that instance but then lost in the semifinals to the Czech Tomas Berdych. At that time, the Torre de Tandil had ended a streak of two editions without Argentines in that situation, since he had also reached a semifinal in 2009 after winning the quarterfinals against the British Andy Murray but then losing against Roger Federer. In addition, the Swiss had eliminated the Argentine in the 2008 quarterfinals.

The outstanding fact is that the only Argentine who won the crown in this outstanding clay-court competition was David Nalbandian in 2007, after beating Federer in the defining match (1-6, 6-3 and 6-3).

Cerundolo won two ATP titles in his career so far and played in two other finals. Although the most outstanding moment in that item was that he lifted a crown on the Eastbourne grass and broke a streak that spanned almost three decades for Argentine tennis.

This performance (in which he previously left the Hungarian Fábián Marozsán and the North American Tommy Paul behind) could be the definitive takeoff of the year for Fran, who has been irregular after falling in five debuts (Hong Kong, Auckland, Córdoba, Buenos Aires Aires and Houston). Although he was a semifinalist at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro (he lost to Báez), his best level in the other ten tournaments that he played in 2024 had been with the recent quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Bucharest.

“It was my best game of the year and one of the best of my career. “I have been looking for a victory like this for a long time,” the Argentine said after the game. It is the fourth time that Fran has reached a Masters 1000 quarterfinal after having reached that stage in Paris (lost to Ruud) and Miami (lost to Karen Khachanov) during 2023. Although his most notable performance was in the 2022 version of Miami , when he eliminated Sinner in the quarterfinals and lost in the semifinals to Ruud.

Francisco Cerundolo will seek to be a semifinalist in a Masters 1000 for the second time in his career (Photo: Reuters/Susana Vera)
2024-04-30 14:40:16
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