{"id":102388,"date":"2025-05-01T19:41:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T17:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/cerundolo-busca-su-gran-gesta-en-la-caja-magica\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T21:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:04:28","slug":"cerundolo-busca-su-gran-gesta-en-la-caja-magica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/cerundolo-busca-su-gran-gesta-en-la-caja-magica\/","title":{"rendered":"Cer\u00fandolo dreaming big in the Caja Magica"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francisco Cer\u00fandolo used to hate playing at the altitude of the Caja M\u00e1gica. Now he is two steps away from the<\/span>\u00a0Mutua Madrid Open<\/a>\u00a0title.<\/p>\n

The Argentine\u2019s memorable run at the tournament continued on Thursday, when he defeated Czech player\u00a0Jakub Mensik<\/a>\u00a03-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 to reach the second ATP Masters 1000 semifinal of his career. In a high-octane encounter, where only two points stood between him and a flight home, the South American showed huge mental fortitude to progress in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Argentinian flags adorned the Arantxa S\u00e1nchez Stadium, where the proximity of the fans always amplifies the feeling of support from the stands. In that hotbed of emotions, the Buenos Aires native ground out a win in one of the toughest matches of the tournament. Far from being intimidated by his big-hitting opponent, Cer\u00fandolo grew in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really tired, I ran a lot today… I hit some incredible shots with a lot of power\u201d, said Cer\u00fandolo. \u201cI\u2019m happy about what I did today, it was a really tough match. I was never in control, I had to dig deep and keep fighting\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Argentine stopped one of the hottest players of the moment, ending Mensik\u2019s run of nine consecutive wins at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. The Czech claimed the biggest trophy of his career in Miami in March, defeating\u00a0Novak Djokovic<\/a>\u00a0in the final.<\/p>\n

Cer\u00fandolo is now presented with a huge opportunity. He will be playing the second ATP Masters 1000 semifinal of his career after reaching the penultimate round at Miami in 2022. The South American will now be able to draw on those memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that Masters 1000 in 2022 I don\u2019t think I was even in the Top 100\u201d, he explained. \u201cIt was the first big tournament I did well in. I\u2019d played very few ATP matches, very few matches against the best in the world. Now it\u2019s been over three years since that tournament and I\u2019ve grown so much in terms of experience, tennis and learnings\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Argentine arrives at the Madrid semifinal as a player who demands respect, with none of the youthfulness that defined him three seasons back on the courts of Florida. The Caja Magica is witnessing a player who is now inside the Top 20, has multiple ATP Tour titles on clay and reached the second week of the\u00a0French Open<\/a>\u00a0in the last two seasons. \u201cI\u2019m a completely different player and person. Now I\u2019m back in the same round and I can\u2019t wait to play it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cer\u00fandolo\u2019s win also served as a message to the rest of the locker room, who are seeing a player who is becoming increasingly au fait with victory. The Argentine is now one of the players with the most wins this season (24) alongside\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>\u00a0and Alex de Minaur, neither of whom are still in the competition on the Madrid clay.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Player<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Wins<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Francisco Cer\u00fandolo<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Alex de Minaur<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Alexander Zverev<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

21<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

21<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Now, the final obstacle on his road to the title bout will be a highly-demanding clay-tennis match. Cer\u00fandolo will play his\u00a0Mutua Madrid Open<\/a>\u00a0semifinal against 14th\u00a0seed\u00a0Casper Ruud<\/a>, a two-time\u00a0French Open<\/a>\u00a0runner-up. The Norwegian beat\u00a0Daniil Medvedev<\/a>\u00a06-3, 7-5 in the day\u2019s first match in the Manolo Santana Stadium. The South American leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head 5-3 although they are all square for their encounters on clay (2-2).<\/p>\n

The Argentine also earned himself an added bonus by reaching the last four in the Caja Magica; Cer\u00fandolo now sits at No. 18 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and will occupy his highest career position come Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Francisco Cer\u00fandolo used to hate playing at the altitude of the Caja M\u00e1gica. Now he is two steps away from the\u00a0Mutua Madrid Open\u00a0title. The Argentine\u2019s memorable run at the tournament continued on Thursday, when he defeated Czech player\u00a0Jakub Mensik\u00a03-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 to reach the second ATP Masters 1000 semifinal of his career. In a high-octane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":102361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[824],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-mutua-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102389,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102388\/revisions\/102389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}