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Lorenzo Sonego of Italy beat Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the first round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Tuesday, October 24. The match lasted for more than two and a half hours, as the 27-year-old registered a well-earned victory in the end.
Sonego will play his second-round match on Thursday, October 26, with his opponent yet to be decided. He has not had a great 2023 season so far, and will like to make amends by going deep in this tournament.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1 Sonego’s powerful serve helped him win
Sonego has a very powerful serve that helped him overcome the Argentine on Tuesday. He fired eight aces in the match, while Cerundolo could not hit any. That gave him a much-needed advantage that proved to be decisive in the end.
Cerundolo struggled to deal with Sonego’s serve for the most part and was able to convert only one out of the three break points that came his way. In comparison, Sonego had 12 break points in the match, of which he could convert three.
The lone break of serve achieved by Cerundolo came in the final game of the second set and that too needed a lucky deflection off the net cord on break point. Sonego won 73% of the points on his first serve in the match, while Cerundolo managed only 60%.
The Italian also won 80% of the points on his second delivery, while Cerundolo managed 71% - again a significant difference.
#2 Cerundolo’s unforced errors did not help his cause
Cerundolo kept committing unforced errors at regular intervals to make the Italian’s job easier. The Argentine hit the net on a number of occasions to keep gifting points to Sonego.
The Italian, meanwhile, kept going around his backhand to put pressure on his opponent with his inside-out and inside-in forehands.
Sonego broke Cerundolo once in the first set to win it, but the Argentine then got even by breaking the Italian once in the second.
However, the third set then saw total dominance by the Italian, who broke the Argentine twice to race through it. In the end, it was quite a convincing win for Sonego, who promises to trouble his upcoming opponents with his robust game.
