6 hours ago
10
All week at the Queen’s Club, Francisco Cerúndolo has had an unlikely guest in his players’ box: the No 10 Argentina shirt of Diego Maradona. And on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Hand of God, Cerúndolo summoned tennis from the heavens to lift the biggest trophy of his career.
But after fending off the American Tommy Paul 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3 in an epic that lasted a record three hours and two minutes, Cerúndolo said he had been inspired by another of his heroes: his father, Alejandro, who had flown to London to see him win.
“It is the first time my dad takes a flight and it’s the first time he has watched me outside Argentina,” he said. “I want to congratulate my dad for taking a plane. It’s Father’s Day, so this is for him.”
Cerúndolo added: “When I was born, he stopped travelling, because he hated planes and he couldn’t handle it. Last year he started taking therapy to approach his fear. Last week, he was saying: ‘I will go to the grass season.’ He always loved London and always loved grass, and he never came.
“Me, my brother and my sister were saying: ‘OK, Dad, until you are in the plane, we don’t believe you.’ They took the plane yesterday evening. I knew they were landing in London around 2:30pm. So I knew if the match was short, they wouldn’t arrive. But if the match was longer, maybe they could.”
Cerúndolo had to do things the hard way. He was a set and a break down against Paul before coming back to take the longest Queen’s Club final in history, beating the previous record of two hours and 57 minutes set by Marian Cilic and Novak Djokovic in 2018.
“It’s not easy to speak,” Cerúndolo said during his victory speech, having secured the title on his sixth match point. Just imagine how this talented but occasionally brittle player would have felt if he had thrown this one away.
Now, however, the 27-year-old can legitimately dream of making a run at Wimbledon. After all, Carlos Alcaraz is injured, Djokovic is 39 and the French Open champion, Alexander Zverev, has never won a title on grass.
Of course Jannik Sinner is rightly the prohibitive favourite. But if the heat dome over London lingers for another few weeks, all bets could be off, especially with Cerúndolo’s forehand – which was responsible for most of his 27 winners – firing like this.
It turned out to be a compelling final, and one that repeatedly zigged when you thought it would zag, starting with the opening game.
Paul had got here without dropping a set, but he started wildly and allowed his opponent an immediate break. Cerúndolo then played sublime tennis until at 5-4 in the first set he was suddenly broken to love.
Soon the Argentinian had lost the tie-break too and, when Paul broke to go 3-2 up in the second, the engraver on the huge Queen’s Club trophy was on high alert. But from nowhere the American dropped his serve twice in quick succession and suddenly it was one set all.
By now the temperature on court was 29.5C. And the quality of tennis, like the mercury levels, continued to rise. At 3-2 Cerúndolo got the break to move two games from victory, but more drama was to come.
First he had to save two break points in the next game before increasing his lead to 5-2. Then five match points came and went before victory was finally sealed with an overhand smash.
Paul was gracious in defeat, telling his opponent: “We always seem to have unreal matches and today you were the better player.”
That much was true. And forget the Hand of God. This final was all about the forehand of Francisco.
