Croatia Open: Cerundolo defeats Musetti to win title in Umag

Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo overcame Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in a marathon encounter at the Croatia Open ON Saturday to claim a third career title.

After a gruelling three hours on court in Umag, both players will jet off to Paris as they begin their Olympic Games campaigns on Sunday.

“It was an unreal battle,” said Cerundolo. “Lorenzo has played super great tennis the last month. He probably is one of the players who won the most matches on Tour so I knew it was going to be really tough tonight.”

The 25-year-old Argentinian will move up 11 places to number 25 in the world rankings after his victory over the Wimbledon semifinalist.

But the hard-fought victory on clay against one of the Tour’s most in-form players will doubtless also provide him with invaluable confidence ahead of the Olympics.

“Both of us, we have to play tomorrow night,” Cerundolo said. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it.

“I’m tired, I don’t know how he is. But tomorrow is going to be really difficult for both of us because we’re not going to sleep tonight, probably two, three hours because we have an early flight tomorrow.

“Arrive there, get a warm-up… and get on court. Me and him, probably we’re going to leave everything tomorrow for our country. I want to play the Olympics really bad. I will get some energy from nowhere and try to do my best tomorrow.”

In the Paris Games, Cerundolo will play unseeded Chilean Tomas Barrios Vera while Musetti takes on French former world number six Gael Monfils.