The consecutive winning streak of Francisco Cerundolo had his brake this saturday in Hamburg: the Italian Lorenzo Musetti defeated him 6-3 and 7-6 (3) in the first semifinal of the ATP 500 in that German city. Thus, the 23-year-old Argentine stopped him, who had accumulated eight consecutive wins, which among other things helped him win the Bastad tournament (Sweden) last week, the first of his career.
The eldest of the Cerúndolo brothers had not lost since July 12 when he began his path to his first crown in Bastad: he achieved Top 10 wins like Casper Ruud (Bastad) and Andrey Rublev (Hamburg). That streak allowed him to reach position 30 in the ranking, the best of his career. Something that will be improved again starting Monday, when he appears in position 24 of the ranking. Only Diego Schwartzman (14) appears in front of him among the Argentines.
This was the first matchup between the two at this level. In the only precedent in a Challenger tournament, the Argentine had also fallen in Cordenons (Italy), in 2020. In this tournament, Cerúndolo successively beat the German Daniel Altmaier (56), the Russian “top ten” Andrey Rublev (8) and his compatriot Aslan Karatsev (37). The eldest of the brothers Cerúndolo looked somewhat tired physically and for that reason announced that The Croatian ATP in Umag will not play from next Monday in which it was written down, but will try to recover.
Cerúndolo came to save a match point against in the second set with 5-4 and service for the Italian. Despite forcing the tiebreaker, Musetti was more decisive in the decisive moments and won the tiebreaker, after one hour and 54 minutes of play. The 20 year old Italian thus reaches its first final and secured entry into the Top 50 ranking for the first time in his career.
The Italian’s rival in the final will be the top seed, Carlos Alcaraz (6th in the world), who beat Slovakian Alex Molcan (48th) in the second semifinal by 7-6 (7/2) and 6-1. Alcaraz will play his sixth final, his fifth in 2022. He has not lost any -this year he won in Miami and Madrid, mainly- and aspires to add a sixth title to his record, just 19 years old. The Murcian tennis player had to battle in the first set, which he won in the ‘tie-break’, before having a much more comfortable second set.
The Hamburg ATP, which is played on a clay surface and will distribute prizes of 1,911,620 euros, had the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta as champion last year. The argentinian champions of the German tournament throughout history were Guillermo Vilas in 1978; Guillermo Coria in 2003; Juan Mónaco in 2012 and Leonardo Mayer in the 2014 and 2017 editions.
The Argentinian John Manuel Certainly, Francisco’s brother, performed from highest to lowest and that cost him the elimination of the Finnish Challenger from Tampere, falling today in the semifinals with a rival that seemed accessible, the Frenchman Harold Mayot, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 and 6-1. Cerúndolo, ranked 110th in the ATP world ranking in a season marked by injuries, lost to Mayot (395) after an hour and 50 minutes of play in a match that he seemed to have controlled.
It is that the 20-year-old Argentine won the first set and in the second he dominated with the score tied 2-2 until the match was interrupted for an hour due to rain, and when they resumed his level dropped a lot and he was surpassed by the Frenchman, who will play the final this Sunday against Hungarian Zsombor Piros (165). The Hungarian won the other semifinal against Frenchman Laurent Lokoli (241) 5-2 and retired due to injury.
Source: Telam