Bastad (Sweden), July 18 (UNI) Argentina’s Fran- cisco Cerundolo capped an impressive week at the Nordea Open here with a top-quality 7-6(4), 6-2 win against countryman Sebas- tian Baez to win his maiden ATP Tour title. The 23-year-old will rise to a career-high No. 30 when the ATP rankings are released later on Monday.
Displaying plenty of clean baseline hitting, and raising his level at key moments, Cerundolo recovered from dropping serve in the opening game of the match to seal his fourth straight-set win in five matches this week to triumph at the ATP 250 event.
Cerundolo’s clash with eighth-seeded Baez was his second ATP Tour final after he won just three games against another Argentine, Diego Schwartzman, in Buenos Aires in 2021.
“It feels amazing,” Cerundolo was quoted as saying by atptour.com. “First of all, I want to congratulate Sebastian (Baez), not just for this week. You’ve been playing amazingly since last year.
“(Winning the title) means a lot. Since you are a child you imagine yourself playing in these events and finals. When I lost in Buenos Aires I was sad because I was at home and I lost badly, but I learned a lot from that. I used it today, and I think I played a great match, a great week,” he said.
Cerundolo had cracked the top 100 of the ATP Rankings for the first time in February after runs to the quarterfinals in Buenos Aires and the semifinals in Rio de Janeiro, before reaching a maiden ATP Masters 1000 semifinal in Miami in March.
