{"id":67019,"date":"2026-09-06T11:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67019\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T11:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:05:11","slug":"us-open-contender-immediately-apologises-to-fans-after-epic-five-set-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67019\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open contender immediately apologises to fans after epic five-set victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo jokingly apologised to US Open fans for dumping home favourite Taylor Fritz out of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The No.24 seed came from behind to shock ninth seed Fritz in a five-set epic to reach the Grand Slam’s second week for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"Argentina's<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Cerundolo stunned Taylor Fritz to reach the last 16 of the US OpenCredit: AFP<\/p>\n

On his debut at the US Open<\/a>‘s famous Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 28-year-old claimed a momentous 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n

Cerundolo found himself trailing by two sets and a break when he sparked a dramatic comeback to force a fifth set.<\/p>\n

He then saved three break points at 3-4 in the decider before he closed out a famous win over the former Wimbledon<\/a> semi-finalist.<\/p>\n

Having beaten Fritz on his home soil, Cerundolo admitted he now hopes American fans can throw their support behind him.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON TALKSPORTCerundolo reacts to win over Fritz <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d he said of his debut on the 23,000-strong stadium. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I started the match a little bit nervous and tight, and after that, I started getting into it and used to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was great. I hope, guys, you enjoyed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019m not the local one. Sorry! I tried my best, and hopefully I can get you all by my side on my next round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerundolo, who admitted that Fritz had the better of him at the start of the match, revealed the turning point came when he broke back to get to 1-1 at the beginning of set three.<\/p>\n

\"Argentina's<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Cerundolo apologised to the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd after knocking out their home hopeCredit: AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was playing way better than me the first two sets, really aggressive,\u201d Cerundolo added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling comfortable at all, and after I broke back in the third, I started getting into it step by step, and I think fourth and fifth, I played really good tennis, that I wasn\u2019t finding that good tennis in the previous sets and previous rounds. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor is a top player. I mean, he played finals here and won a lot of matches, so I knew how difficult it is to play against him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWinning here on my first time on Ashe is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Cerundolo’s second consecutive five-set thriller, having previously gone the distance to beat Jan-Lennard Struff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played five sets today, five sets two days ago. If I\u2019m good, maybe we can go out and have dinner, but no more than that,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n

\"Francisco<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

He has still never made a Grand Slam quarter-finalCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal now is next round: try to recover as best as possible, to try to be in good shape to play the round of 16 here. <\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another super-tight match. I love New York, I love the city, and I\u2019m trying to enjoy as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerundolo is back in action on Monday against Alexander Blockx as he bids to reach the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo jokingly apologised to US Open fans for dumping home favourite Taylor Fritz out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1022,25764,221,25765,304,463,616],"class_list":["post-67019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-taylor-fritz","tag-francisco-cerundolo","tag-francisco-cerundolo-taylor-fritz","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-taylor-fritz-girlfriend","tag-tennis-news","tag-us-open","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}