Sawt Falasteen - Cerundolo outlasts Paul to win marathon Queen's Club final

The 27-year-old from Buenos Aires became the first Argentinian to lift the trophy at the long-established Wimbledon warm-up tournament, where tennis greats such as Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Rafael Nadal are among the previous champions.

Cerundolo once again demonstrated impressive endurance, coming from a set down for the third successive match to win 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3 in sweltering heat in London.

At three hours and four minutes, the players were on court for seven minutes longer than the previous longest Queen's final -- Marin Cilic's 2018 win over Novak Djokovic.

Afterwards, Cerundolo paid tribute to his parents for their court-side support.

"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 was also inspired to a first ATP 500 title by a Diego Maradona Argentina football shirt draped over a chair in the players' box throughout the tournament.

He served for the opening set but lost all four points as Paul, the 2024 Queen's champion who was unable to defend his title last year due to injury, came to life after a slow start.

The American forced a tie-break which the seventh seed handed to him with a double fault.

Paul broke again for 3-2 in the second set, but Cerundolo broke back twice to level the match.

It was the first set Paul had dropped all week, and the 29-year-old started to falter as as Cerundolo broke for 4-2 in the decider.

Nevertheless, Paul saved four championship points, three on his own serve, before an overhead saw Cerundolo take the title with his fifth, the new champion dropping to the turf in what appeared a combination of exhaustion and celebration.

For Paul, it was a first defeat in 10 matches at Queen's -- his last reverse, in 2023, also came against Cerundolo.

"Congrats to Fran, I have a ton of respect for you," said Paul.

K.AbuDahab--SF-PST