The Argentine tennis player Francisco Cerúndolo qualified this for his first semifinal of the year at the ATP 250 in Lyon by beating British Jack Draper 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
Cerúndolo, ranked 28th in the ATP world ranking, it took two and a half hours to break Draper (60) in a match in which he went from low to high and ended up winning in the third set.
The current number one in Argentine tennis will play one of the semifinals of the tournament this Friday against the British Cameron Norrie (14), who prevailed over the Buenos Aires native of San Martín Sebastián Báez (44) by 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1 after one hour and 52 minutes of play.
The British Norrie, finalist this year of the Argentina Open (lost to the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz), He is the second favorite for the title and also the current champion in Lyon.
The record between Cerúndolo and Norrie is even with a win for each: The Argentine beat him this year in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 and the British beat him in the 2022 edition of Lyon, in the round of 16.
The Lyon ATP 250 is played on a brick dust surface, it will distribute prizes for 630,705 euros, and Canada’s Félix Auger Aliassime (10) is the favorite for the title, who will later play his quarterfinal match against Frenchman Arthur Fils (112).
Riera, semifinalist in Morocco
Along with the French tournament, the Rabat tournament corresponding to the WTA circuit is taking place in Morocco. And there, the promising Argentine tennis player Julia Riera advanced to the semifinals, with an outstanding performance in his first 250 category tournament, by prevailing in the quarterfinals over the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva by 5-7, 6-4 and 6-2.
Riera, born in Pergamino 20 years ago and ranked 195th in the WTA world ranking, sealed their access to the semifinals after reversing an adverse match against Putintseva (61), which stretched for two hours and 27 minutes.
In his absolute debut in a major circuit tournament, Argentina will try to go one step further this Friday in the semifinals against the Austrian Julia Grabher (74)who beat the Italian Martina Trevisan (26), top favorite for the title, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and retired due to physical discomfort.
The woman from Pergamine settled among the top four in the tournament thanks to a remarkable week in which she beat three tennis players of dissimilar styles: the French Kristina Mladenovic (165), the Egyptian Mayar Sherif (55) and the aforementioned Putintseva (61).
The WTA 250 in Rabat is played on clay courts and will distribute a total of 259,000 euros in prize money. With his performance in Morocco, Riera secured a promotion to around 150th place in the WTA world rankings, to be the second best racket in Argentina behind Rosario Nadia Podoroska (101).