Francisco Cerúndolo stopped play, checked the bounce and gave a point away in the middle of a first-round match at the ATP 500 in Múnich. He was already leading Sumit Nagal 6-2, 2-0 when the electronic line-call system ruled Nagal’s serve out, then the Argentine corrected it himself.
The point came with Cerúndolo facing break point, a chance for Nagal to claw back into the set. Nagal had served wide, the ball clipped the tape and the replay later showed it had missed by only a few centimeters. Cerúndolo, the world No. 19, went on to win anyway, 6-2, 6-2, and move into the second round.
The result mattered because Cerúndolo arrived in Munich as one of the event’s leading names and left no doubt about his form. He won the ATP 250 IEB+ Argentina Open in Buenos Aires earlier in the year, reached the semifinals in the previous edition in Munich and was back on the clay with more than 800 ranking points to defend across the European swing. The tournament, which carries 2,561,110 euros in prize money, had top seed Alexander Zverev at the top of the draw.
Nagal, ranked 292nd, entered the main draw as a lucky loser and still made Cerúndolo work for the odd moment of sportsmanship that stood out most. It was the sort of incident that can change the mood of a match, but not the outcome. Cerúndolo closed it out in straight sets and was scheduled to face Botic van de Zandschulp on Wednesday.
For Cerúndolo, the run through Munich sits inside a longer clay-court stretch that now turns toward Roland Garros, the final major stop of the season’s dirt swing, set for late May and early June. For Nagal, the match ended with a rare glimpse of fairness from across the net and no ranking points to show for it.
