And now it’s up to Matteo Berrettini. After Jannik Sinner’s Miami final, Lorenzo Sonego’s victory in Cagliari, Fabio Fognini’s quarter-finals in Monte Carlo, the 25-year-old Roman in Belgrade won his fourth ATP title by beating at the end of the usual battle in three sets (6- 1 3-6 7-6) Aslan Karatsev, world number 27 from tomorrow, the Ossetian Ogre who in the semifinals managed to overtake world number 1 Novak Djokovic in an ordeal that lasted over three and a half hours .
Italy is the protagonist every week, always with different players, for our tennis it is really a new boom.
Today the victory came in a match that Matteo seemed to have in his grip after the first set, which he temporarily slipped from his hand in the second, when a truly irreducible Karatzev managed to get back into the game; and who then ripped off fighting shoulder to shoulder in the third, getting a match point canceled at 6-5, until the final tie-break in which – there yes – Karatsev gave in to fatigue and tension collapsing without winning a point.
A hoped-for and expected rebirth for Matteo, number 10 Atp, who after a good start to the season had again injured his abdominals in Australia, forced to retire after the victory with Karen Khachanov just when he had to meet Stefanos Tsitsipos in the second round. Seventy-one days after the injury, and after the break-in in Cagliari (only in doubles) and Monte Carlo, Berrettini thus gives Italy the title n.71 of the Open era, and wins his fourth overall title of five finals later. those of Gstaad (2018), Stuttgart and Budapest (2019).
In the ATP 500 in Barcelona, on the other hand, Rafa Nadal (from tomorrow again 2nd in the world overtaking Djokovic) adds yet another stone to his immense career, winning the 87th title of his career, the 61st on clay and the twelfth in Barcelona – on the field that bears his name – defeating at the end of an epic match the fresh champion of Montre Carlo, and number 5 of the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas for 6-4 6-7 7-5 (in 3 hours and 38 minutes). Rafa also saved a matchpoint in the third set, a figure that confirms the progress of Tsitsipas and the new generation, but reaffirms the unparalleled quality of the Spanish champion.