Eighth seed Matteo Berrettini is one match away from claiming the Mutua Madrid Open title in his tournament debut after taking down Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.
After arriving in the Spanish capital with just one match under his belt since March, Berrettini has played himself into form in his first appearance at La Caja Magica. The Italian has dropped just one set en route to becoming the first man from his country to reach the championship match, after also defeating countryman Fabio Fognini, Federico Delbonis and 16th seed Cristian Garin.
Berrettini will face fifth seed Alexander Zverev in the final as he seeks his first ATP Masters 1000 title, the biggest trophy of his career. The German owns a 2-1 lead in their ATP Head2Head, although they’ve split their clay court encounters 1-1.
Ruud, ranked No. 22 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, had not dropped serve all week long in Madrid and faced only one break point on his way to the final. But Berrettini’s firepower had him under pressure throughout, and he finally surrendered his serve once in each set against the Italian.
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Did You Know?
Should Matteo Berrettini go on to claim the Mutua Madrid Open title, 2021 will be only the second season to start with three first-time ATP Masters 1000 champions, after Hubert Hurkacz’s victory in Miami and Stefanos Tsitsipas’ in Monte-Carlo. In 1990, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi and Andrei Chesnokov won the first three ATP Masters 1000 championships in history.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/33v7CBT
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