Carlos Taberner ended Francisco Cerundolo’s title defense at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag with a dramatic comeback victory. Ranked No. 111 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Taberner overcame Cerundolo, the top seed, with a score of 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-5. Despite Cerundolo hitting 50 winners and having a chance to serve out the match at 5-4 in the final set, Taberner secured his first win against a Top-20 player.
“I’m so happy with my victory today, it was an unbelievable battle,” said Taberner. “I lost a really tight first set… I was a little bit tired but I tried to give my 100 per cent and I won. I’m so happy. With all my adrenaline and my recovery, I think I’m going to be good for tomorrow.”
The three-hour and 20-minute match saw nine breaks of serve in the deciding set. This win marks Taberner’s entry into his second ATP Tour quarter-final since reaching his first in Nur-Sultan in 2021. He will face Jesper de Jong next for a place in the semi-finals.
De Jong reached his first tour-level final recently in Bastad and defeated fifth seed Mariano Navone with scores of 6-3, 6-4.
Luciano Darderi also impressed with his performance against Chun-Hsin Tseng, winning their match 7-5, 6-0 without dropping any break points according to Infosys ATP Stats. Darderi extended his winning streak to six matches and will play Croatian wild card Dino Prizmic next after Prizmic’s comeback win over Nikoloz Basilashvili.