Francisco Cerundolo turned a lost-looking Saturday on Arthur Ashe Stadium into the biggest hard-court result of his career, coming from two sets down to beat ninth seed Taylor Fritz 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and reach the last 16 of the US Open for the first time.
The 24th-seeded Argentine needed 3 hours and 39 minutes to finish the job. It was only the second time in his career he has recovered from two sets to love. For Fritz, a 2024 finalist in New York, it was his earliest exit at Flushing Meadows since a first-round loss to Brandon Holt in 2022.
Taylor Fritz sets the tone early
The American looked sharper from the first ball. He took the opening set 6-3 and stretched the lead in the second, while Cerundolo struggled to find timing on a court he had never played on before. Fritz’s first-strike tennis kept the Argentine on the back foot, and a home crowd that expected another deep run from the Californian had little reason to worry through two sets.
The match flips in the third
The break back in the third set changed the afternoon. Cerundolo began to use his heavy forehand, mixed the pace on serve, and pushed Fritz into longer exchanges. He took that set 6-3 and the fourth 6-4, forcing a decider against a player who no longer looked as sure of his rhythm.
"He was playing way better than me the first two sets," Cerundolo said in his on-court interview. "I wasn't feeling comfortable at all. But after I broke back in the third, I started getting into it step by step, and I think the fourth and fifth I played really good tennis. I wasn't finding that tennis in the previous sets or previous rounds.
“Taylor is a top player. He made the final here and won a lot of matches, so I know how hard it is to play against him. But winning here, on my first time on Ashe, is fantastic.”
0-40 escape decides the fifth
The key passage arrived at 3-4 in the fifth. Cerundolo faced three break points at 0/40. He answered with three unreturned first serves, then ripped a huge forehand to reach game point and closed the hold with another unreturned first serve.
Momentum stayed with him. He broke Fritz immediately, the sixth and last break of the match, and served out the upset. Fritz finished with 54 unforced errors and 41 winners in a display that never settled after the early lead.
The pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head now sits 2-1 to Cerundolo after their first meeting on hard courts. Fritz had won his first title of 2026 at the ATP 500 in Washington earlier this summer, but that form did not travel to Ashe.
Last 16 awaits Cobolli or Blockx
Cerundolo arrived in New York after three straight losses, then survived a five-set second-round grind against Jan-Lennard Struff. This win takes him into the second week in New York for the first time and into a Grand Slam last 16 for the fourth time, after the Australian Open this year and Roland Garros in 2023 and 2024.
He will next face Flavio Cobolli or Alexander Blockx for a place in the quarter-finals.
