Cerundolo wins marathon Queen’s final

Marathon man Federico Cerundolo won the longest final in Queen’s Club history, beating Tommy Paul to claim the biggest title of his career on Sunday.

>The 27-year-old from Buenos Aires became the first Argentinian to lift the trophy at the illustrious Wimbledon warm-up tournament in west London.

>He did it the hard way, again, coming from a set down for the third successive match to win 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3.

>At three hours and four minutes, in sweltering heat, an enthralling final was seven minutes lengthier than the previous longest, Marin Cilic’s 2018 win over Novak Djokovic.

>Afterwards, Cerundolo paid tribute to his father Alejandro, who flew out from Argentina a couple of days earlier with his mother to support their son.

>“My mum and dad just arrived for the last two (matches),” he said.

>“It’s the first time my dad took a flight and watched me outside Argentina. Congratulations for Father’s Day!”

>Cerundolo’s inspiration for his first ATP 500 title was a Diego Maradona Argentina shirt draped over a chair in the player’s box throughout the grass tournament.

>It was rather prescient, coming one day before the 40th anniversary of Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal against England at the Mexico World Cup.

>Yet it was the forehand of Cerundolo which dominated the early stages of this match, consistently unsettling Paul on the Andy Murray Arena.

>Cerundolo served for the opening set but lost all four points as Paul suddenly came to the party, forcing a tie-break which the seventh seed gift-wrapped to him with a double fault.

>Paul broke again for 3-2 in the second, but his serve quickly deserted him as Cerundolo broke back twice to level the match.

>It was the first set Paul had dropped all week, and the 29-year-old was flagging down the home straight as Cerundolo grabbed the decisive break for 4-2.

>Paul saved four championship points, three on his own serve, but Cerundolo converted his fifth with an overhead before dropping to the turf in celebration, or exhaustion.

>For Paul it was a first defeat in 10 matches here, having won the title in 2024 before being unable to defend it last year through injury.

>In fact the last time he lost a match in West Kensington was in 2023 – against Cerundolo.

>“Congrats to Fran, I have a ton of respect for you,” said the US player. “And thanks to the crowd for the support all week long, it’s a blast playing in front of you guys.”