Gustavo Fernández has won and is a finalist at Roland Garros. Photo: Capture TV.
The Argentine Gustavo Fernández, 28 years old and number 3 in the ITF rankings, reached the final of the Roland Garros adapted double tennis tournament paired with Shingo Kunieda after beating the locals Stéphan Houdet and Nicolas Pfeifer, second-seeded players, 7-6 and 6-1 in 1 hour and 35 minutes of play.
Together they have already won the Cup of Musketeers in 2019, barely beating the French in the decisive match, and narrowly fell in the definition of that year’s US Open against the British Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid.
It is also interesting to note that for the first time in the history of the tournament, an adapted tennis match was played on Philippe Chatrier’s court.
Gustavo Fernandez and Shingo Kunieda go to their second Grand Slam as a couple.
The Japanese, tennis legend adapted with 47 Grand Slam titles (27 in singles and 20 in doubles), he will be Gusti’s rival also in the singles final, an episode in which the faces had already been seen in 2018 with the victory of the Japanese in two sets.
They also met in the deciding match in the other three majors. At the Australian Open and the US Open 2014 Kunieda won again, while at Wimbledon 2019 the title remained in the hands of the Argentine.
He cleared the number 1 and goes for more glory
In the semifinals, Gustavo Fernández took only 1 hour and 2 minutes to beat Alfie Hewett, the leader of the world rankings, and this Friday morning she qualified for her twelfth Grand Slam final, fifth at Roland Garros. He will go for his sixth title in the majors, third in Paris.
He became champion for the first time at the Bois de Boulogne in 2016, repeated in 2019, the year in which he finished the season as number 1 in the world, and also won the Australian Open 2017 and 2019 and Wimbledon 2019.
In the double he accumulates two great crowns: Wimbledon 2015, paired with Pfeifer, and Roland Garros 2019, together with Kunieda. Her big account pending, the US Open, where she lost three finals (one in singles and two in doubles).
Gustavo Fernández shows all his happiness after being Pan American champion.
Representing Argentina, Cordovan del Río Tercero also reaped great successes, beyond the fact that they still have the backbone of not being able to get on the podium in the three Paralympics they played (lost in the quarter-finals in London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020).
At the Parapan-American level, he won the gold medal in singles at the 2011 Guadalajara Games and won the gold double at Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019. In total, five Parapan-American titles for a more than exceptional figure of adapted tennis, who will try to continue writing great history.
Source: Clarin
