Matteo Berrettini, winning debut in Buenos Aires

The new season of Matteo Berrettini opens with a success. In the first round of the Buenos Aires ATP 250, the Roman, who was forced to skip the Australian Open due to a new abdominal injury, defeated wildcard Federico Coria, who was returning to the circuit after six months of stop due to an elbow problem and currently occupies the number 322 position in the ATP ranking, with the final score of 7-5 7-5 after two and a quarter hours of play.

Luca Giorgetti

After erasing a break point in the opening game, it was Berrettini who was the most dangerous player in response: the Azzurro got as many as six break points between the second, sixth and eighth games but Coria always managed to save himself, thanks also to more than one winner. In the twelfth game, however, the Roman earned three consecutive ones and the second was the good one: winning smash and first set in the archives (7-5).

With the inertia in his favor, Berrettini quickly goes up 3-0 in the second set thanks also to too many free errors by the home favourite. In the fateful seventh game, however, the Blue returns the favor by surrendering the serve with a forehand that goes off over the net. Matteo still remained ahead (5-4) and in the tenth game wasted a match point with an error in response but in the twelfth the Argentine surrendered with three freebies.

Thanks to this victory Berrettini enters the round of 16 of the “IEB+ Argentina Open” where he will face Czech Vit Kopriva, number 95 in the world rankings.

Nothing to do, however, for Francesco Passaro. The Peruvian qualifier succumbed in a comeback to Peruvian Ignacio Buse, number 98 in the ATP rankings, who won with a final score of 5-7 7-5 6-4 after more than two and a half hours of struggle. Many regrets for l’Azzurro who was ahead 7-5 5-1 and missed two match points at 5-3.