Cerundolo delivers another early statement, reaches Munich QFs

Francisco Cerundolo’s debut campaign at the BMW Open by Bitpanda could hardly have started in more dominant fashion.

The fifth-seeded Argentine on Thursday eased past Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2 to book his quarter-final spot in Munich. Having dropped just two games in his first-round victory against 2024 titlist Jan-Lennard Struff, Cerundolo has laid down two significant early statements to the rest of the field at the clay-court ATP 500.

Cerundolo and Shevchenko’s maiden tour-level meeting on clay began competitively. Both players broke serve in their opening return game of the match, and Shevchenko later carved out five break points at 2-2. Yet the No. 104 in the PIF ATP Rankings was unable to convert, and his opponent won 10 of 13 games from that point to race to victory.

“Today my hammer wasn’t there, I couldn’t hit the forehand like I used to hit it and what I like. But I went backwards a little bit, play with more topspin, play some slices from the backhand. I added some variety to my game and I think that was good,” Cerundolo said. “My serve wasn’t working well today and I started kicking in first serves because I wanted to make them. You have to find solutions and today I think I did that.”

Captivating consistency 🇦🇷@FranCerundolo is the 1st player to reach 6 quarter-finals this season 👉 6-3 6-2 facing Shevchenko

📸 @BMWOpen500 | #BMWOpen pic.twitter.com/omz6OVbkOr

— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 17, 2025

During his 82-minute triumph, Cerundolo crucially saved nine of 11 break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, while he converted five of eight himself. Now 19-8 for 2025, he is the first player to reach six tour-level quarter-finals this season, although Carlos Alcaraz will equal that tally if he defeats Laslo Djere in Barcelona later on Thursday.

Cerundolo will take on David Goffin in Friday’s quarter-finals. The former World No. 7 recovered from a nightmare start to defeat Mariano Navone 0-6, 7-5, 6-1. With victory in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash against Navone, Goffin advanced to his first clay-court ATP Tour quarter-final since he lifted the title in Marrakech in 2022.

In the top half of the draw, Zizou Bergs defeated breakout star Diego Dedura, with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 triumph. Dedura, who in his first-round match against Denis Shapovalov became the first player born in 2008 or later to contest an ATP Tour match, was unable to counter the quality of Bergs.

With his victory against 17-year-old Dedura, Bergs reached his maiden ATP 500 quarter-final, where he will take on Fabian Marozsan.

Marozsan closed the day with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against French fourth seed Ugo Humbert. Following the Hungarian's third Top 30 win of the year, he is into his seventh tour-level quarter-final and second on clay.