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Cerundolo Soars Into Miami Open Semis
2 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Francisco Cerundolo has emerged this week as an elite player based on his three set win vs. Frances Tiafoe and today’s quarterfinals 4-1 retirement victory vs Jannik Sinner who was doomed by a foot blister.
Today I happened to receive a text message from former ATP player and radio Sander Groen praising the young Argentine as a future top ten player. So at his press conference, attended by 21 media people, I asked Cerundolo a question related to Groen’s complimentary comments…
My question to Cerundolo today…
Q. I got a text, a random text today, from a former ATP player Sander Groen. He just happened to say Francisco is going to be a top-10 player in the future. Never talked about you before. Is your belief as strong as his in you?
FRANCISCO CERUNDOLO: “Well, that’s a tricky question. Hopefully, yeah. I believe myself that I can keep improving, keep moving up. Of course a dream that I have to be a top-10 player, I’m working a lot to be there. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s not a goal right now. It’s happening this week is going to change a lot of things, but yeah, hopefully I can be a top-10 player in the future. It’s not something that I’m thinking about right now, but yeah, I will work to achieve that and many more things hopefully.”
Groen texted me this reply when asked him why exactly he likes the game of Cerundolo so much…
“He plays natural and moves great. He plays like he has got so much leftover for when he needs it more. The opposite of his brother Juan. Very unnatural hard worker which is actually quite rare for a lefty.”
“I already saw him play a close match with Schwartzman a few weeks ago which he lost because he looked tired. But I was already impressed there how creative his game is and how easy he was hitting winners here and there with little effort. But I was thinking “ok, it’s on clay, he is probably not that good on hard (laughs).”
So now the balance of power in tennis continues to shift and Argentina has two or three young highly regarded prospects Sebastian Baez and Juan and Francisco Cerundolo who are in position to join Diego Schwartzman in the upper echelon of the ATP hierarchy.
Francisco Cerundolo · Miami Open
Cory · March 31, 2022 at 8:35 pm
Was watching F Cerundolo play so many clay challenger events over the last 1-2 years and really loved his game. His ability to wield quick angles so impressive. I wondered if his game would transition well to hard and i geuss we have that answer. Similar to Baez, looks like it is.
Scoop Malinowski · March 31, 2022 at 10:08 pm
Cory, The Cerundulos emerged last year and Francisco is ascending out of obscurity quietly like Norrie, Schwartzman, Hurkacz, who were not hyped as can’t miss stars.