Cerundolo Gets a Scare, Collapses to the Ground: “I Was Lucky”

There was a moment of great fear for Argentine tennis player Francisco Cerundolo during his match against Britain’s Arthur Fery in the quarterfinals of the Queen’s tournament, a warm-up for Wimbledon. Cerundolo found himself unwittingly at the center of an incident that shocked the crowd in the second set.

In the third game of the second set, Cerundolo moved to the net but was struck squarely in the throat by Fery’s backhand. The blow was extremely violent, and the player collapsed to the ground amid the dismay of the crowd, tournament officials, and Fery himself.

His opponent was the first to check on the player’s condition, followed by the umpire and the medical staff. For a few moments, Cerundolo was unable to breathe, but then he got back up and resumed play. After losing the set 6-3, he managed to recover and win the third set, securing his spot in the semifinals.

At the end of the match, the two players hugged, and Fery apologized. “Man, I got hit in the throat and couldn’t breathe. But after a game or two, it went away. I was lucky,” Cerundolo said after the match. After the match, the Argentine wrote Messi’s name on the camera, in honor of La Pulga’s hat trick at the World Cup.