From Two Sets Down to a Comeback Win

Francisco Cerundolo recovered from a two-set deficit to beat Taylor Fritz 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 at the US Open, closing out a match that lasted five sets and stayed within a handful of points from start to finish.

Fritz was the sharper player early. He took the opening set 6-3 and backed it up 6-4 in the second, converting the breaks he needed and keeping Cerundolo under pressure on return. At two sets to love, the match looked settled.

It was not. Cerundolo broke twice in the third set to take it 6-3, and from there the momentum never went back the other way. He edged the fourth 6-4 and then, in a decider where both players held serve through the middle stages, broke at 4-4 before serving out the match 6-4.

The Numbers Say It Was Even Closer Than Five Sets

Total points won: Fritz 150, Cerundolo 148. Total games: Fritz 23, Cerundolo 25. That is how narrow this was — Cerundolo lost the points count and still won the match, which is the clearest sign of where he found the ones that mattered.

The serving split explains the rest. Fritz landed only 53% of first serves to Cerundolo's 61%, but won 67% of those points against Cerundolo's 81%. Cerundolo hit nine double faults to Fritz's five and was out-aced 12-10, yet he converted 6 of 19 break points while Fritz took just 5 of 12. Fritz saved 13 of 19 break points faced; Cerundolo saved 7 of 12.

Off the ground it was equally tight: 41 winners for Cerundolo against 37 for Fritz, with both players making exactly 54 unforced errors. Cerundolo won 83% of his net points (19 of 23) to Fritz's 63% (12 of 19), and covered 2,881 metres to Fritz's 2,804.

What It Means

For Fritz, a two-set lead surrendered on a surface that suits him is a hard result to absorb. For Cerundolo, it is the kind of win that reframes a tournament — the Argentine dug out a match he was losing and did it by staying in points long enough for the margins to swing.

Anyone tracking this section of the draw in TennisDraw will want to check their bracket: this one did not go the way the seeding suggested.