Peniston’s dream week gets even better with last-16 win

World No.180 takes another scalp in remarkable fashion

BRITISH No.7 Ryan Peniston continued his memorable week with an impressive victory over Francisco Cerundolo in three sets to progress into the quarter-finals of the cinch Championships.

The 26-year-old had stunned world No.5 Casper Ruud on Tuesday, having also found out on the same day that he had received a wild card in the main draw at Wimbledon, and made the most of this latest appearance on Centre Court at Queen’s Club with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 win in two hours.

Peniston dished out a firstset bagel in 20 minutes over his Argentinian opponent, but Cerundolo fought back to show his class and looked favourite to win the second-round tie when he broke at the start of the decider.

World No.180 Peniston had other ideas and won the last three games, clinching a great triumph with a winner down the line to continue British involvement in the west London tournament.

Jack Draper’s defeat on Wednesday – coupled with Andy Murray’s withdrawal due to injury and the early exits of Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans – left the left-hander from Southend as the final home hope at Queen’s.

There were no nerves on show from Peniston early on and a quick hold on his opening service game was followed by a rapid double break of Cerundolo.

Cerundolo seemed overawed by the occasion, with his radar lacking direction, and a double fault provided a first set point for the Briton, who saw the Buenos Aires player hit another unforced error to conclude the opener in quick time. After losing seven consecutive games, the world No.46 finally got off the mark just inside half an hour and suddenly found momentum.

Now it was Peniston struggling to hold and failing to land his shots, with

Cerundolo able to level up the scores with the temperature just shy of 30 degrees.

The Argentinian secured a crucial break in the opening game of the third set with a winner rushing into the net, and the odds of another victory over a top-50 player looked slim for Peniston.

Yet with the crowd willing him on, he dug deep to break in the eighth service game and, after a hard-fought hold, suddenly match point presented itself.

In fitting fashion with his rapidly developing reputation, Peniston claimed a sixth victory on grass this summer with a sumptuous winner down the line before he roared in delight.

“I don’t think I want to wake up from this any time soon,” the Essex player said on-court.

“I just took a lot of confidence from the last match against Casper and came out guns blazing.

“Then the second set didn’t go to plan – Francisco is a great player – and then I just managed to fight in the third set and got over the line. “I’m pretty happy about it.” After qualifying for a third consecutive quarter-final, following fine runs at Surbiton and Nottingham earlier this month, Peniston will attempt to go one better today and carry on this dream week. He will face Filip Krajinovic, who came from behind to defeat Sam Querrey yesterday.

Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini had to dig deep to stay on course to defend his title with a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Denis Kudla to reach the quarter-finals.

The Italian found himself in a real battle at Queen’s Club after American Kudla took a tight opener but he edged a second set tie-breaker before he clinched a decisive break in the ninth game of the decider and eventually served out for the match.

Berrenti will face Tommy Paul this afternoon for a place in the semi-finals after the American despatched Stan Wawrinka with minimal fuss in a 6-1, 6-4 victory.