ATP Tour

Gea stuns Cerundolo, Shapovalov earns seventh straight Los Cabos win

Arthur Gea earned one of the biggest wins of his career Thursday at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo in Los Cabos, where he shocked the third seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-7(11), 6-4, 6-0 to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final.

After letting slip four set points in the opening set, the Frenchman recovered to produce a rock-solid performance as Cerundolo struggled with a number of uncharacteristic errors. Gea reeled off nine straight games to seal the upset win in two hours and 40 minutes.

“Honestly, I played really well the whole match,” Gea said in his on-court interview. “I was under a bit of tension in the first set. But after that I started to play more freely and it was easier.”

In his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with World No. 20 Cerundolo, Gea saved four of the five break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats. With the victory, the Frenchman earned his second Top-20 win of the season: Gea's first came against World No. 19 Jiri Lehecka in the first round at the Australian Open in January.

The next test for Gea in Los Cabos will be a semi-final meeting with Coleman Wong, who also advanced to his first ATP Tour semi-final earlier on Thursday by defeating Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 7-5.

The 22-year-old Wong, who upset top seed Lehecka in the second round, played aggressively throughout his one-hour, 29-minute encounter against Brooksby. Wong finished having won 82 per cent (31/38) of his first-serve points and saved all four of the break points he faced. With his victory, the man from Hong Kong rose 12 spots to No. 90 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and is set for a career high when the latest edition of the PIF ATP Rankings are released on Monday.

In the bottom half of the draw, Denis Shapovalov and Cameron Norrie set a semi-final showdown between former Los Cabos champions. Shapovalov and Norrie, both leftys, will contest their third Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting and their first since 2021 after they each notched straight-sets quarter-final wins on Thursday night in Mexico.

Defending titlist Shapovalov overcame Dalibor Srvcina 6-4, 6-2 to extend his winning streak in Los Cabos to seven matches. With his triumph, the 27-year-old became the fifth player to reach multiple Los Cabos semi-finals after Norrie, Taylor Fritz, Damir Dzumhur and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 2021 champion Norrie raced past Bernard Tomic 6-1, 6-0 to earn a record 14th main-draw win in Los Cabos. Norrie’s Friday night meeting with Shapovalov will be the Briton’s fourth semi-final appearance at the ATP 250 event.