He Miami Openthe second Masters 1000 category competition of the season, had given the Argentine many smiles Francisco Cerúndolo (21st in the world ranking). The 2022 semi-finals and last year’s quarter-finals were very productive antecedents for the 25-year-old from Buenos Aires to continue thinking big in this edition. However, this time, his momentum on the hard surface of American Florida came to a halt in the third round. The Russian Karen Khachanov (16th) won 6-1, 5-7 and 7-6 (7-5), in 2h48m, leaving the tournament without national rackets in the individual draw (Sebastián Báez, Tomás Etcheverry, Diego Schwartzman, Facundo Díaz Acosta and Pedro Cachin lost in their debuts; only Horacio Zeballos is still in action, but in doubles).
At the Grandstand, the second largest stadium in the Miami Gardens complex, north of the city, Khachanov (No. 8 in the world in 2019) built a great first set, with forcefulness in his serve (75% of points won with the first serve), pepper in his returns and effectiveness in break chances: he broke the serve of the eldest of the Cerúndolo brothers in games number three, five and seven. Thus, in just 33 minutes, Khachanov took over the first set. The Muscovite took the initiative in most of the points and, in addition to the usual power of his shots, he added depth, generating an explosive combo for the Argentine’s coverage, who was also imprecise and went to sit down having committed fifteen unforced errors (ten were drives, his best shot).
Far from showing an irascible attitude, as in some not so distant moments when the actions did not go in his favor, Cerúndolo continued competing with patience and seriousness, looking for options to try to modify the game, under the gaze of Franco Davín, whom He joined his team at the end of last year (coach Kevin Konfederak is also a member of the group). Khachanov opened the second set with his serve and served at 0-30, but he was able to escape that awkward moment. The exchange of shots was much more balanced in that set. After ten games played, they reached a key moment tied (5-5). However, the match was interrupted for thirteen minutes because a spectator became ill and took time to be assisted by doctors.
