Nordea Open 2022: Sebastian Baez vs. Francisco Cerundolo Tennis Pick and Prediction

TennisSection previews the 2022 Nordea Open as Francisco Cerundolo takes on Sebastian Baez in the final on Sunday, July 17th, 2022.

Francisco Cerundolo and Sebastian Baez will clash for the first time as they attempt to win the Nordea Open title on Sunday. 23-year-old Cerundolo will look to hoist his first ATP title in his second ATP final, but faces a challenging prospect in Baez who has been in this territory before him.

Francisco Cerundolo’s dream week could get even better should he top it off with a title win against Sebastian Baez. The 23-year-old scored the biggest win of his career against Roland Garros finalist and the top seed at the Nordea Open Casper Ruud earlier during the week. And he proved that result was no fluke after picking up another top 20 scalp in his semifinal match against Pablo Carreno Busta. Having fallen twice in the semifinals stage in 2022 in Rio and more recently at the Miami Masters, Cerundolo atoned for those losses.

Sebastian Baez, for his part, took down the Nordea Open second seed Andrey Rublev in dominant fashion. Baez eased his way past the Russian power hitter 6-2 6-4 in one of the biggest upsets of the week. Prior to Saturday’s semifinal, the 21-year-old Next Gen star had never beaten a top 10 player, but that scenario has changed and continues to garnish his resume.

Francisco Cerundolo and Sebastian Baez have not played each other on the ATP Tour. The two countrymen will meet for the first time at the Nordea Open. With all the pre-tournament favorites falling like flies, the draw has served up an unexpected finals collision between two of the best talents to come from Argentina. At 21, Baez is touted as the future of Argentinean tennis and who can argue? He has already captured an ATP title this year which sits next to his astonishing six trophies from the Challenger Tour in 2021. If anything, he should be a strong favorite to win on Sunday.