Francisco Cerundolo defeated Justin Engel in Almaty | ATP Tour

Matching Report

Cerundolo ends Engel’s 17-year-old career in Almaty

Fifth seed Machac continues hot form

October 16, 2024

#NextGenATP 17-year-old Justin Engel made history on Monday at the Almaty Open when he became the first player born in 2007 or later to win an ATP Tour match. But his run at the ATP 250 came to a halt on Wednesday when fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo got past the German wild card 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Engel, who defeated Coleman Wong in his tour-level debut, battled Cerundolo in a 90-minute match. He battled back from the break in the second set and finally forced a break and showed brilliance, hitting 15 winners.

However, Cerundolo was the most consistent, making nine unforced errors (24-35) in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting to seal his place in the quarter-finals.

“It’s always difficult to play a new guy,” said Cerundolo. “I don’t know how he plays and he’s a young lad who can’t be beaten, so he plays with ease. I think it was a controlled game from my side in my service games until 5-4 when I served and I missed the game. A couple of easy forehands.

“After that it was difficult to close the game because it started playing well but luckily I finished it at half time.

The fourth seed has now recorded 30 tour-level wins in a season for the second time in his career, having achieved 39 in 2023. In the first hard court quarterfinal of the year, the Argentine will meet either Aslan Karatsev or Alexander Shevchenko.

Engel grew up idolizing Rafael Nadal and balanced tennis with kickboxing until he was 12. The German, who lived in Moldova for three years with his grandparents, won his first ITF World Tennis Tour event in May in Villach, Austria.

The No. 458 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has won three more ITF titles since then, and earlier this month earned his first ATP Challenger Tour victory to reach the quarter-finals at the event in Villena, Spain.

Fifth seed Tomas Machac continued his recent form with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Kazakhstan wild card Timofey Skatov.

Machac reached his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Shanghai last week, defeating World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets in the quarter-finals. The Czechs also advanced to the last four in Tokyo at the end of September.

Machac is number 25 in the PIF ATP Rankings and is the highest-ranked player without an ATP Tour title. The 24-year-old aims to change that in Almaty, where he will face Beibit Zhukayev.

In the first round match, Aleksandar Vukic from Australia defeated local man James Duckworth 6-4, 7-5. Vukic will face eighth seed Adrian Mannarino in the second round.