A sensational opportunity thrown away. The challenge lost by Andrea Pellegrino in the second round of the Sardinia Open qualifiers (Challenger ATP 175) at the hands of the 22-year-old Argentine left-hander Juan Manuel Cerundolo cannot be defined differently. After dominating the first set, leaving just one game to his opponent and after also leading the following set to 4/2, the 27-year-old from Bisceglie ran into a prolonged and fatal miss pass. Cerundolo thus benefited from this to impact the set count by closing the second set in his favor 6/4, then completed the work by clearly winning the third set too with a score of 6/1.
No access to the singles main draw for Pellegrino (Cerundolo will face the other qualifier Diallo on his debut, then the winner will face Lorenzo Musetti, seeded no. 2) in the second round, who will however return to the court in the afternoon paired with the Moldovan Radu Albot in the opening round of the doubles draw on clay at TC Cagliari against the Argentine tandem Coria – Carabelli.
