Mattia Bellucci doesn’t disfigure, but smiling is Alexander Zverev
Mattia Bellucci eliminated by Alexander Zverev
Mattia Bellucci's adventure at the Shanghai Masters 1000 ends in the second round, in front of one of the big names of world tennis: the world number 101 must in fact bow 6-4, 6-2 to Alexander Zverev, number 3 in the world rankings, at the end of a match that, especially in the first set, proved anything but easy for the finalist at the last Roland Garros.
In fact, the first fraction of the game saw Bellucci responding blow by blow to his opponent’s initiatives: the buster even had a break point on 40-30 in the sixth game, but Zverev recovered and not only kept the game on his own serve, but went on to win the next one, thus creating the decisive furrow to bring the set home, after a good 58 minutes of play.
Instead, the trend in the next fraction was different: Bellucci immediately loses a game on his own serve, Zverev signs a 5-1 partial and, in fact, never has to look back, going on to win qualification for the third round of the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 of the year. The match ends like this, after 96 minutes in total: Bellucci is left with the satisfaction of having given a hard time, in the first part of the match, to an opponent of the highest level.
With Jannik Sinner already qualified for the third round, Italian tennis is waiting for Sunday’s matches to see how many representatives of the tricolor will go on to play for qualification to the round of 16 at the Shanghai tournament: on Sunday, the matches of Flavio Cobolli, Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti are scheduled against Stan Wawrinka, Holger Rune and David Goffin, respectively.
