NEW YORK.- The Argentinian Francisco Cerúndolo, the best positioned Latin American tennis player in the ATPwill premiere in a third round of the US Open thanks to a marathon victory this Thursday against the German Jan-Lennard Struff.
The eldest of the Cerúndolo brothers, number 25 in the ATP, beat the veteran Struff (44th) 5-7, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and 6-3 after three hours and 54 minutes of a tense duel in New York.
The Buenos Aires player, 28, displayed all his character to react after the German, 36, twice took the lead.
At the time of the final set, Cerúndolo had more energy left in the tank to seal a victory that he celebrated by putting his hands to his head on the floor.
The first Argentine racket had stumbled in this phase in the last three years in Flushing Meadows.
Away from the fast tracks of New York, Cerúndolo achieved better performances in other Grand Slams like the round of 16 Roland Garros in 2023 and 2024 and those of Australian Open this year.
To also advance among the 16 best in the US Open must beat the winner of Thursday’s duel between the American Taylor Fritzninth seed, and the Italian Mattia Bellucci.
Argentine tennis had already placed Tomas Etcheverry and Mariano Navonewho will face each other.
It is the first time that three albiceleste rackets reach the third step of the US Open since 2018.
Auger-Aliassime out
He US Open This Thursday he experienced the early departure of his third seed, the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassimein the second round against the Russian Karen Khachanov.
The Russian, semi-finalist in New York in 2022, he beat Auger-Aliassime 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2 and left the last grand slam of the year with only two representatives of the top-5 of the ATP.
Before the Canadian, world number four, the Serbian had already been eliminated in his debut Novak Djokovic fifth in the ranking.
Together these surprises to the drop of number one, Jannik Sinner, They only remain alive in Flushing Meadows the german Alexander Zverev and spanish Carlos Alcarazsecond and third in the ATP.
Auger-Aliassime, a two-time semi-finalist at the tournament, won a closely contested first set against Khachanov before his physique and tennis broke down.
“I think maybe he had physical problems, it’s part of tennis. I wish him a quick recovery if he is injured, but I don’t know,” Khachanov said.
The Canadian accumulated 47 unforced errors and also suffered with his serve, with just 58% effectiveness on the first serve and 8 double faults.
