US Open: Fritz leads by two sets and a break, and goes out, Cerundolo qualifies
Taylor Fritz had dropped 11 games in two rounds and led by two sets and a break, and he is out of the US Open. Francisco Cerundolo, 0-40 down at 3-4 in the fifth, won 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 for his first fourth round here and the 17th top-10 win of his career.
Fernando Cerundolo, US Open 2026 | © Jürgen Hasenkopf / PsNewz
Taylor Fritz had lost 11 games in reaching the third round. He then led Francisco Cerundolo by two sets and a break, and lost 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday night, in what is the first big upset of the round in the men’s draw.
Cerundolo joins his compatriot Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the last 16.
The Argentine, the No. 24 seed, was 0-40 down at 3-4 in the deciding set and did not lose another game. It is his 17th win over a top-10 player and takes him into the fourth round of the US Open for the first time, in his first appearance in the third.
“I don’t know,” Cerundolo said when asked how he had got out of it. “He was playing way better than me in the first two sets. Really aggressive. I wasn’t feeling comfortable at all. After I broke back in the third, I started getting into it step by step. In the fourth and fifth I played really good tennis that I wasn’t finding in the previous set and the previous rounds.”
He had never played on Arthur Ashe Stadium before. “Taylor is a top player. He played a final here and won a lot of matches. I know how difficult it is to play against him,” Cerundolo said. “Winning here my first time on Ashe, it’s fantastic.”
The fourth round Fritz was counting on
The 2024 runner-up arrived in the third round on a 10-1 run on American soil since July that included the Washington title, and was looking for a fourth consecutive fourth round here and a third at Grand Slam level this season, after the Australian Open and a Wimbledon quarter-final.
He had also spent the week explaining why short matches mattered. “It is really important to not kill yourself in the first couple of matches,” Fritz said on Thursday, after beating Mattia Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1. “You do get a day off, but anyone will tell you one day is not enough to recover from a five-set match. It’s just not.”
Asked repeatedly about a draw that has lost Novak Djokovic, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Arthur Fils and several others, he had given the same answer each time: none of it mattered to him until the semi-finals, because he could not meet any of those players earlier. He went out four rounds short of it.
Fritz was one of five American men who could have reached the fourth round here. Alex Michelsen, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe all did so on Friday. The last time five or more Americans reached the fourth round of any Grand Slam was at the 1995 US Open.
US Open, men’s singles, round 3
A. Zverev [1] vs A. Tabilo [25] – not played
L. Darderi [21] vs D. Sweeny (W) – not played
M. Zheng (W) vs A. Gea (L) – not played
Z. Bergs [31] vs B. Van de Zandschulp – not played
K. Khachanov vs B. Bonzi – not played
J. Mensik [17] vs L. Tien [14] – not played
F. Cerundolo [24] d. T. Fritz [9]: 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
A. Blockx [28] vs F. Cobolli [5] – not played
D. Medvedev [7] d. A. Rinderknech [26]: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
F. Tiafoe [11] d. V. Vacherot [22]: 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
A. Michelsen d. D. Merida: 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-3
T. Etcheverry [27] d. M. Navone: 6-4, 6-4, 6-3
B. Shelton [8] d. D. Shapovalov: 7-6(3), 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4
S. Tsitsipas d. J. Lehecka [18]: 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-1
T. Paul [20] d. A. Bublik [15]: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-3
C. Alcaraz [2] d. Y. Wu: 6-3, 6-4, 6-1
