WATCH: Championship point in Bastad causes controversy after missed call
ATP
Argentinian fans were certainly very happy ahead of the 2022 Bastad Open as Francisco Cerundolo took on Sebastian Baez in an all-Argentinian final match.
Cerundolo played some inspired tennis at the ATP 250 tournament in Bastad. He defeated Aslan Karatsev, Pablo Carreno-Busta, and also the first-seeded Casper Ruud to reach the final in Sweden.
Baez had a great run at the event himself. He beat Fabio Fognini, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Dominic Thiem, and the second-seeded Andrey Rublev to set up an all-Argentinian final clash in Bastad.
The first set of the final match was very close, and any of the players could have won it. Eventually, it was Cerundolo who prevailed, winning the first-set tie-break 7-4.
In the second set, Cerundolo was much more dominant. He broke Baez's serve twice while avoiding facing break points himself to win the match final match relatively easily 7-6(4), 6-2.
But the first ATP title of the young Argentinian came with a controversy. Cerundolo was serving to win the tournament as he was up 40-0. After his serve, Baez hit a ball that was clearly going out, so Cerundolo started celebrating before the ball even hit the ground.
As he fell to the ground, he dropped his racket. His racket then appeared to be hit by the ball and therefore, the point should have been awarded to Baez.
However, no one noticed this, so Cerundolo could enjoy the celebration. Although the point should have been awarded to Baez, it is probably not the way he would want to steal the title from his compatriot, who was clearly in control of the second set.
Even if the point was overturned, Cerundolo would still have two more match points, and given how dominant he was in the match, it's unlikely he wouldn't use one of those.
