Coming from behind, Francisco Cerúndolo settled in the semifinals of the ATP 250 in Lyon, a contest in which Sebastián Báez was eliminated this Thursday. The porteño won 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3 over the English Jack Draper and will seek to reach the definition of the French contest facing Cameron Norrie, who reaches this instance after winning 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1 to the Billinghurst tennis player.
With two meetings between the Argentines and the British at the Vélodrome Georges Préveral, the curtain rose this Thursday on the quarterfinals of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes in Lyon, an ATP 250 tournament on clay prior to Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam it’s from the season.
In the first round, Francisco Cerúndolo got a passport to the semifinals by beating Englishman Jack Draper in two and a half hours of play. In a very even start, the Brit was more precise on key points, breaking to take a 4-3 lead, saving a break point on his next service turn and taking the opening set 6-4 with an ace.
Similar was the beginning of the second battery of the match in terms of score progression, although both had to work piecemeal to keep their services. At the meridian of the set, Jack Draper struck again, leading 4-3, but with a parallel setback on the strap, the man from Buenos Aires recovered immediately and winning three games in a row, also with a 6-4 lead the match to a third chapter .
If the eighth game of the second period had been a turning point, at the start of the third period the fate of the game was practically marked. After saving a breaking ball, Kevin Konfererak’s pupil was left at zero with his rival’s serve and escaped 3-0. Although he could not make a second break and failed to bill in his first two match chances, he sealed the 6-3 victory with a serve that had no return.
In the continuity of the day, in a match with oscillating development and very marked segments in favor of one player and another, Sebastián Báez could not against Cameron Norrie. The only precedent was precisely in 2022 for the same instance of this tournament and the coincidence was also repeated in the result with the victory of the Johannesburg-born in three sets.
At the dawn of the contest, he contracted the consistency of the British with the irregularity of the Argentine and that moved with a 3-0 score. The trend continued for the rest of the set and with a forehand winner Cameron Norrie closed out the set 6-2.
The second episode had a process diametrically opposed to the initial one. After an error by the European, the tennis player trained by Sebastián Gutiérrez got an early break and, in the same way, he distanced himself 5-2 on the scoreboard. The native of San Martín maintained his solidity and sealed the episode 6-2 after a wide ball from his rival.
Again, a resounding change of direction gave the party in the decisive period. Sebastián Báez’s inaccuracies returned and he was 0-2 after losing his service to zero. An unforced backhand error from the Argentine left the Englishman facing victory by going up 5-1 and sentencing him on his first match point with a service winner.
