By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, June 19, 2022
Matteo Berrettini blasted 14 aces dispatching Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 to successfully his Queen’s Club crown in today’s Cinch Championships final.
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Slashing an ace on championship point, Matteo Berrettini continued inspired renaissance with imposing closure.
Berrettini blasted 14 aces dispatching Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 to successfully his Queen’s Club crown in today’s Cinch Championships final.
More: Federer Confirms Comeback Plan
Clad completely in black with his brand “Boss’” logo in white, Berrettini played ruthless dictator on the historic London lawn.
It is Berrettini's seventh career title and it comes a week after he defeated Andy Murray to win Stuttgart.
Sidelined for 12 weeks after undergoing hand surgery in March, Berrettini has been lord lawn posting a 9-0 grass-court record in 2022.
"It's too many emotions," Berrettini said. "Last thing I expected, coming back from surgey, was winning two titles in a row, defending my title here one of the most prestigious tournaments we have....I don't want to cry."
Dictating play behind his sledgehammer serve and piercing forehand, Berrettini more than tripled Krajinovic’s winner output—38 to 11—and won 18 of 23 trips to net in a one hour, 33-minute conquest.
The second-seeded Berrettini made history as the first man to win his first two Queen’s Club appearances as he improved to 10-0 at the Cinch Championships, including his 2021 finals win over Briton Cameron Norrie. Berrettini is the eighth man in history to capture consecutive Queen’s Club crowns, joining seven former world No. 1 players: John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray achieving the feat.
Credit Krajinovic, who arrived in London carrying an ignominious 0-4 career grass record, with putting together a potent run to reach the final. In a high-quality opening set, the pair traded breaks in the fifth and sixth games. Berrettini earned the crucial break for 6-5 and served out the first set at 15.
Elevating early in the second set, Berrettini burst through eight of nine points breaking for 3-2.
The Berrettini serve was the story of the second set: He won 12 of 14 points played on his first serve in the second set. Berrettini banged an ace to close in style.
Six-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic and 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, who arrives at SW19 halfway to the calendar Grand Slam, are the clear favorites at The Championships.
If either of the two iconic Big 3 champions falter, Berrettini is a confident contender. Consider Berrettini boasts a 20-1 grass-court record over the past two years with his lone loss coming in four sets to Djokovic in the 2021 Wimbledon final. Four of Berrettini’s seven career titles have come on lawn, he will carry the confidence that comes from a nine-match grass-court winning streak into Wimbledon and should benefit from a kinder fielder with three Top 10 men—world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, Olympic gold-medal champion Alexander Zverev and eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev—out of The Championships.
Obviously, a key to defeating Berrettini on grass is to make him hit passes off his weaker two-handed backhand wing. However, when Berrettini is booming his serve with venom and hammering his forehand with menace it can be tough to get to his backhand.
The 26-year-old Italian will launch his quest to become the eighth man to win Queen’s Club and Wimbledon in the season same.
If he achieves it, the first Italian man to play a Wimbledon final would join John McEnroe (1981, 1984), Jimmy Connors (1982), Boris Becker (1985, 1988), Pete Sampras (1995, 1999), Lleyton Hewitt (2002), Rafael Nadal (2008) and Andy Murray (2013, 2016) as the eighth man to pull off the Queen’s Club-Wimbledon double.