{"id":650383,"date":"2026-06-21T10:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650383\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:14:11","slug":"cerundolo-through-to-queens-final-with-paul-after-narrow-victory-over-nakashima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650383\/","title":{"rendered":"Cerundolo through to Queen&#8217;s final with Paul after narrow victory over Nakashima"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"wcl-news-perex\" itemprop=\"description\">Seventh seed Francisco Cerundolo booked his place in the final at Queen&#8217;s Club with a hard-fought 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 win over the American Brandon Nakashima on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Cerundolo will face American eighth seed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/paul-tommy\/pd3ye1BS\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tommy Paul<\/a> in Sunday&#8217;s decider after he beat Frenchman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/humbert-ugo\/O4ywE5Ah\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ugo Humbert<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/match\/tennis\/humbert-u-O4ywE5Ah\/paul-t-pd3ye1BS\/?mid=rmFtHCke\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6-3, 6-3<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m super happy because it&#8217;s my first final in an ATP 500,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/cerundolo-francisco\/lWQ3G6gB\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cerundolo<\/a> said on court at the end of the match.<\/p>\n<p>The pair went toe to toe on the grass of the Wimbledon warm-up in the first set before the 24-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/nakashima-brandon\/ETGnbrpH\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nakashima<\/a> got the edge in the tiebreak, taking it 7-5.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old Argentine hit back in the second, breaking to go up 4-3 and picking up the next two games to square the match.<\/p>\n<p>The decider went with break until Cerundolo produced a perfect cross-court forehand that left Nakashima swishing at air.<\/p>\n<p><img crossorigin=\"anonymous\" class=\"wcl-image_vG4MA\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c942a4fe-89ba-43a1-86a7-c25eaed18757.jpg\" alt=\"Match stats\" title=\"Match stats\" itemprop=\"image\"\/>Match statsFlashscore<\/p>\n<p>The break put him 3-2 up but he couldn&#8217;t retain the advantage with the American, now coached by former world no.6 Wayne Ferreira who won at Queen&#8217;s in 1992, breaking straight back.<\/p>\n<p>Cerundolo, who won a grass title at Eastbourne in 2023, broke again to go 5-4 up and duly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/match\/tennis\/cerundolo-f-lWQ3G6gB\/nakashima-b-ETGnbrpH\/?mid=WIvMEnko\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">served out for the match<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a really challenging match, really tough,&#8221; said Cerundolo.\u00a0&#8220;I think Brandon is playing incredible too. He was playing amazing during the whole weekend today also.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m super happy because I just stayed there competing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Paul, a Queen&#8217;s champion in 2024, continued his impressive form this week against Humbert, having not dropped a set in west London.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old will seek to claim his second trophy of the season, after lifting the clay-court title in Houston, when he meets Cerundolo in Sunday&#8217;s final.<\/p>\n<p>Cerundolo boasts a 5-2 lead over Paul in their previous career meetings, including a three-sets victory over the American in the round of 32 at Queen&#8217;s three years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seventh seed Francisco Cerundolo booked his place in the final at Queen&#8217;s Club with a hard-fought 6-7(5), 6-3,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}