Two sets down on a court he had never played
Francisco Cerundolo had never hit a ball on Arthur Ashe Stadium before today. He spent the first hour of his third-round match against Taylor Fritz looking like a man who had noticed. The forehand, the shot his whole game runs through, kept landing short. Fritz controlled the baseline exchanges, controlled the serve-return pattern, and took the first two sets 6-3, 6-4 without needing anything special.
Then the Argentine got broken again at the start of the third. From there he had nothing left to protect, and the difference was immediate. He started swinging from the baseline instead of steering, recovered the break, took another off Fritz and closed out the set 6-3. A single break settled the fourth 6-4.
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Three break points and a wall of first serves
The fifth set was on serve to the eighth game. That was where Fritz built three break points, one point from the chance to serve for the match at 5-3. Cerundolo answered with three of his best deliveries of the afternoon, held for 4-4, then broke the Fritz serve immediately for a sixth time in the match and served it out 6-4.
Six breaks against a top-ten server across five sets is the number that explains this result. Fritz is one of the biggest servers on the tour and his hold percentage is why he keeps landing in the second week of majors. He was broken every second or third service game once the match turned.
What each of them takes away
Cerundolo reaches the fourth round in New York for the first time, and this is the biggest win of his career at a major. He has carried a reputation for shrinking in the moments that decide matches, and there was no sign of it on the last two service games. Alexander Blockx is next, the Belgian who took out fifth seed Flavio Cobolli on the same day and who beat Cerundolo in Madrid earlier this season.
Fritz has said repeatedly that he wants a Grand Slam title. The draw in front of him this fortnight was as open as it has looked in years. He was two sets up and could not close it.
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