Rune leaves Cerúndolo out and Korda complicates Báez

The first adventure of Juan Manuel Cerúndolo (19 years old) in the NextGen ATP Finals will end on Thursday at the Allianz Cloud in Milan, since the Argentine fell this Wednesday on the second day against Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune (4-1, 4-2, 3-4 and 4-2 in 1h16) and later his mathematical elimination. It occurred when Carlos Alcaraz beat Brandon Nakashima, who will play for the semifinals in a direct duel with Rune.

The inexperience in tournaments of the highest level on hard court took its toll on Cerúndolo (he won three Challengers this course, but all on gravel), who in a short time had already lost the first two sets to the drive of the 18-year-old Dane, much more active and dynamic. The Buenosairean suffered a lot with his serve and gave several break opportunities to his rival, who took advantage of a couple of them in the first two sets. He only had one and did not convert it. He was also less aggressive, an important aspect in this short and fast format of the U21 Masters. But in the third set, three double faults in a row by Rune gave him a chance to try and fight for the win. The Gentofte tennis player, who has a fairly good record this year in Challengers (36-9) and is the one who has made the biggest leap this year in the ranking of the eight who are in Milan, did not allow it. He has gone from 511 to 109. After losing to Alcaraz on Tuesday, victory allows him to dream of crosses.

Korda frena in Báez

It did not look like it when in the first set of the match, Sebastián Báez went 3-1 and served, one point away from taking it, but his namesake Sebastian Korda came back and he was superior to take a victory by 4-3 (3), 4-2 and 4-2 in 1h13 that places him very close to the classification for the semifinals and complicates that of the Argentine. In fact, the American will be in the crossroads if Gastón beats Musetti in the last game of the day. Báez, meanwhile, will have to try to capture the pass with a victory on Thursday against the aforementioned Gastón in a group B that can get quite complicated.

Korda took revenge for the defeat endorsed by Báez, the first South American to win a match (Tuesday against Musetti) at the NextGen ATP Finals, four years ago in a junior tournament that was played precisely in Italy. The service helped the son of Czech Petr Korda a lot and weighed down the options of the often tennis player from Buenos Aires in a meeting with few errors on the part of both.

Results and classifications.