By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 25, 2019
A 2019 full of remarkable achievements for Italy’s Matteo Berrettini continues at full throttle. The 23-year-old defeated Andrey Rublev 7-5 7-6(4) on Friday to reach the semifinals at the Erste Bank Open and boost his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals at London.
“I’m really happy,” said Berrettini. “It was a tough match mentally and physically. Andrey is playing, I think, his best tennis so far. Last week he won Moscow so he was feeling confident.”
Berrettini, who closed out 2019 at 54 in the world, has ensured himself of a Top 10 debut with his victory, per the ATP.
The Rome native had to battle tooth-and-nail with a red-hot Russian on Friday. Rublev, fresh off the Moscow title and with a seven-match winning streak in tow, earned the first break point of the match in Berrettini’s first service game, but it was saved by a daring—and perfect—drop shot.
Rublev saved a pair of break points in the seventh game but he could not hold down the fort in the eleventh game as Berrettini broke by placing a well-struck forehand volley out of Rublev’s reach on break point for a 6-5 lead.
He would hold to 30 to close out the opening set but his work was not done.
Berrettini saved a pair of break points in the fourth game of the second set and even as he was denied on his lone break point of the set in the eleventh game, he managed to quickly gain the upper hand in the tiebreaker and converted his third match point to reach his eighth semifinal of 2019.
The victory puts Berrettini in the driver’s seat with regard to London qualification as he has stretched his lead to 130 points over Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard fell in three sets on Friday to Reilly Opelka in London, and Berrettini can add another 120 if he defeats Dominic Thiem in Saturday’s semifinals. If he wins the title, Berrettini could move past Alexander Zverev in the race by 125 points expand his lead to 550 over Bautista Agut.
“It’s not my main goal right now,” said Berrettini. “I have to improve a lot of things. First of all I have to enjoy what I am doing, because otherwise I cannot play for, I hope, like 10 or 15 years. That’s my goal for this year—enjoying, learning. I guess I’m doing pretty well, if it’s gonna happen, let’s see.”
Berrettini will face Thiem for the third time on Saturday in Austria. The Italian knocked off Thiem at Shanghai in straight sets and owns a 1-1 lifetime record against him.
Thiem advanced when Pablo Carreno Busta pulled the plug due to injury on Friday, trailing 5-0.