Matteo Berrettini doesn’t want to stop: sixth consecutive win

Matteo Berrettini also starts with a success in Kitzbühel

After dominating the tournament in Gstaad, giving up only four games in the final to the hapless Quentin Halys, Matteo Berrettini is off to the best possible start in Kitzbühel as well, where he got through the first round by defeating 7-6(6), 7-6(5) Russian Pavel Kotov, number 62 in the ATP world rankings. It's the sixth match in a row won by Berrettini, who has not lost since the hard-fought second round at Wimbledon, where è he was defeated by Jannik Sinner.

It è wasn’t an easy match, the one on the clay of the Austrian city, for the Roman, who yesterday regained his place among the world’s top 50 tennis players: Kotov immediately makes the break, but Berrettini doesn’t lose his composure and recovers it in time to take the first fraction to the tie-break, where he wins on the advantages after annulling a set point.

Also balanced was the second set, where it came down to 6-6 without a break, neither on one side nor on the other: to win, in the final mini-game, è again Berrettini, who showed greater concentration in the decisive moment. Awaiting him, in the second round, is Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, No. 2 in the seeding and 21st in the world.

Practically at the same time Italian tennis celebrates another passage of the round, at the Umag tournament in Croatia: è Fabio Fognini to take a great satisfaction, beating the French Luca van Assche 6-4, 6-3, at the end of a match that the veteran Ligurian controlled without particular difficulties, if we exclude a brief moment under a break in the first set. Already known Fognini's opponent in the second round: it is Tseng Chun-Hsin, an athlete from China Taipei, who was able to take advantage of a bye in the first round.