Matteo Berrettini finds his smile again in Stuttgart: beat Safiullin after three hours

Matteo Berrettini-Roman Safiullin 7-6 5-7 7-5

Matteo Berrettini regains his smile in the Stuttgart ATP 250. After more than two months of stop, the Roman won on his debut on the German grass of the 'Boss Open', overcoming Russian Roman Safiullin, number 43 in the ATP rankings, in three hard-fought sets (7-6 5-7 7-5) after nearly three hours of battle.

In the first set è service was the dominant factor, with both tennis players not conceding a single break ball. So it comes to the tie-break: Berrettini starts well (3-0) and rises to 5-2, but here he is caught again by his opponent (5-5); it goes soì to the bitter end and in the end è Matteo to win by 10 points to 8.

In the second set è Safiullin the first to get to break ball in the fifth game, but Berrettini nullifies it and holds the serve on the advantages. In the next game è the Azure to have a chance in reply but sends along the backhand. When the tie-break seemed the natural epilogue of the second partial as well, the Roman surrendered the serve on the most beautiful, sending the Russian to serve for the second set at 6-5: Safiullin did not let himself be begged and sent everything back to the third and decisive set.

In the third set è Berrettini to suffer on serve: the azure, in fact, has to cancel as many as four break points in his first four turnovers. Having escaped the danger, Berrettini gets the first break point of the set on 5-4, which coincides with match point: Matteo does not exploit it but in the twelfth game he gets three more and on the fourth attempt he scores, filing the case with the final 7-5.

With this success Berrettini detaches the pass for the round of 16 where he will face the winner of the challenge between Frenchman Matteo Martineau, number 179 in the world, and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, number 117 in the ATP ranking.