Fran Cerúndolo, her good debut on European soil and what fuels the hope of the path towards Roland Garros

Francisco Cerúndolo He has experienced a great evolution in his tennis in recent years. Having transformed himself into a complete player, capable of performing very well on every surface and of complicating (and even beating) the best on the circuit, today he is looking for that consistency that is missing from his career, to start climbing the rankings again and become a serious candidate in the most important events of the calendar. The European clay court tour, which ends in Roland Garros and in which it achieved good performances last year, presents itself as the ideal context to find continuity and begin to show the results of the new partnership with Franco Davinowho joined his team in December to collaborate Kevin Confederak. And solid debut in Monte Carlo Masters 1000the first important stage of this stretch of the season invites you to get excited.

The 25-year-old player from Buenos Aires played a great game in his first appearance in the Principality Daniele Altmaiera rival who entered the area as lucky loserbut it is usually dangerous on slow pitches.

In the first set, Fran He dominated tennis and mentally. He looked very comfortable with the speed of the pitch and very confident with his right to close out the quarter in just 42 minutes. And in the second, He didn’t despair when the German surprised him at the break he moved to 4-3, in a match in which the Argentine committed a couple of unforced errors which cost him dearly.

In his weakest moment, he remained calm and avoided leaving the game. Instead of fighting with himself and losing focus, which he often does when things don’t go his way, he recovered serve and then took the set by a comfortable margin in the tieto seal the passage to the next instance with 6-2 and 7-6 (7-3).

That victory in the tie-break of the last set will also be an extra injection of confidence, because the player from Buenos Aires had been eliminated in his last three tournaments, losing decisive tie-breaks. In the third round of Indian wells in view of Ben Shelton for 7-6 (7-5), 3-6 and 7-6 (7-5); in the same case as You love me with Karen Khachanov by 6-1, 5-7 and 7-6 (7-5); and his debut on clay Houston against Luciano Darderi for 6-4, 2-6 and 7-6 (7-4).

Cerúndolo announced last December that he would add Davin as head coach, with the hope that the coach would know how to drive Gastone Gaudio WIN Roland Garros Already Juan Martin del Potro to conquer the US Open -and who also coached great players, like Fabio Fognini AND Grigor Dimitrov– could help you make the final leap towards your goal of winning big titles and reaching the top 10.

“We are making great progress, always growing, but in the elite the difference is very subtle, they are details. He is the most successful coach in Argentina and we are very new. We want you to provide us with experience and hierarchy; that something extra that I need”, commented the man from Buenos Aires at the time in a conversation with ESPN.

As is normal, every new company needs time and the results on the field have not yet been seen. Fran has had a mixed start to the season. He won one match in three tournaments on the Australian tour (on his debut in Melbourne). I’m going there Cordoba AND Buenos Aires winless and raised the bar Rio de Janeiroin which he fell in the semi-final against Sebastiano Baez, then champion. He was then joined by those two defeats in the third round at Indian Wells and Miami, the first matches in which Davin accompanied him (in the rest of the away matches they spoke daily on the phone, as they had agreed). And last week he lost on his debut in Houston against Darderi, 72nd in the ATP.

Perhaps on the tour of the slow fields that leads to Paris we will begin to see the fruits of the almost four months of work of the Buenos Aires native and his team with Davin. In this stretch of the season Cerúndolo usually plays well. Last year, for example, he came fourth Barcelona AND Rome and eighths inside Roland Garros. From here until the “great” Frenchman, he will have to defend 655 points.

The start was promising. On his debut in Monte Carlo he seemed very solid tennis-wise and mentally, very involved in the match and focused on his game. Now he will make a careful test: he will clash with Khachanov, 17th in the ranking, who has won the three matches played in the past (all on hard surfaces).

Will he be able to get another victory to reach the third round in the Principality for the first time and take another step in the search for that definitive leap in quality that he has been looking for for some seasons?