Francisco Cerúndolo was eliminated from the Masters 1000 in Madrid and Argentina said goodbye to the men's singles chart.
The Buenos Aires player fell in the round of 16 against Belgian Alexander Blockx 7-6 (10-8) and 6-2, in a match that was marked by the Argentine's furious attack after a very tight first set. The match began with a marked parity and a high level of effectiveness with the serve on the part of both players. The Argentinian had three break opportunities to win the first set, but failed to complete them.
On the other hand, Blockx also demanded the best Argentine tennis player in the ranking (No. 20) to the maximum, although everything ended up being defined as an extremely close tie-break. There, the 21-year-old Belgian was more accurate in the decisive moments and took the tiebreaker 10-8 after almost an hour of play. Cerúndolo's frustration was immediate: as soon as the set ended, he vented his anger by breaking his racket against the brick dust of the Magic Box
.
The emotional impact seemed to be felt rapidly in the development of the party. At the start of the second set, Cerúndolo gave up his service and was quickly at a disadvantage against a rival who gained confidence and began to dominate with power and aggressiveness from the back of the court. Although the Argentine had five chances of breaking throughout the match, he couldn't take advantage of any. In addition, he accumulated 16 unforced errors and never managed to recover the strength he had shown in the first leg of the match
.
In this way, Blockx, one of the biggest revelations of the tournament and currently number 69 in the ranking, closed the game in 1 hour and 40 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals, where it will face Norway's Casper Ruud (No. 15). On the other hand, with the defeat of Cerúndolo, Argentine tennis was left without representatives in the individual draw of the Masters 1000
in Madrid.
