Rome Masters 1000: Francisco Cerúndolo repeats the return formula and advances in the Foro Italico

It looks like the formula you found Francis Cerundolo in the Masters 1000 in Rome is the return. This Sunday, as happened on his debut, he recovered after losing the first set to prevail over the French Gregoire Barrere and move on to the round of 16 on the brick dust of the Foro Itálico, where he is the only Argentinian left in the match. singles draw.

The 24-year-old from Buenos Aires and 31st in the ATP ranking, celebrated with partials of 6-7 (0), 6-2 and 6-2 against a tough rival, who came from the surprise of the Russian Karen Khachanova (11th) in the previous grade, where the Argentine also had to come back against the Chinese Yibing Wu 4-6, 6-2 and 6-3.

The Frenchman got off to a much better start, breaking his rival’s serve and taking up 3-1, an advantage he was unable to maintain with his serve in the following game and which led to a ‘tie-break’ to forget for the Argentine. after wasting two break balls for the rest of the sleeve.

Cerúndolo failed to render his serves well and went zero in the tie-break, a result that seemed to activate him even more for the second set, in which he was able to resist in tense moments, saving two break points and pressing the second set Moments of Weakness by Barrere, who broken twice to put the sensational 6-2.

In the third set, the decisive one, Cerúndolo raised the level and showed his best version, placing himself at 5-1 with great solidity in serving in his first two serves, which he scored zero.

Cerúndolo, who entered directly into the second round of this tournament, entered the round of 16 of an M1000 for the third time in his career, where the winner of the Russian awaits Alexander Shevchenko and Italian Jannik sinnerseeded 11 in this competition, one of the most important on the tour before Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the season.

The other representatives of the Argentine Legion who had already been eliminated were Thomas Etcheverry (in the round of 16 against the Serbian Novak Djokovic), Juan Manuel Cerundolo (on his debut against the French Fils), Pedro Cachin (in the first against Chilean Cristian Garín) e Sebastian Baez (who failed to get past lucky loser Shevchenko).