Marco Cecchinato breaks the curse

Marco Cecchinato in the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000

In addition to Andrea Vavassori’s memorable success against Andy Murray, Italian tennis is also celebrating Marco Cecchinato’s passage to the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000: in fact, the 30-year-old from Palermo defeated 7-6(4), 6-3 the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, breaking a sort of “curse” that had seen him without success in the main draw of in a Masters 1000 since Monte Carlo 2021.

Despite the almost nil gap in ranking (Cecchinato is currently No. 85, two positions below Fucsovics) and a less than brilliant start, with his opponent immediately good at snatching a break advantage, the Sicilian athlete did not lose his composure, first recovering the break and then closing a long first set (63 minutes) at the tie-break. Easier was the task in the second fraction: this time it was Cecchinato who started with a break lead, without losing it again and finishing in nine games overall.

Cecchinato thus flies to the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000: his next opponent the Australian Alex De Minaur, number 19 in the world rankings.