Berrettini Boosts London Hopes In Vienna

Matteo Berrettini earned a crucial win in his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals on Friday, beating Andrey Rublev 7-5, 7-6(4) at the Erste Bank Open.

The 23-year-old ended Moscow champion Rublev’s seven-match win streak after one hour and 52 minutes, raising his level at the conclusion of both sets to reach his eighth tour-level semi-final of the year. Berrettini improves to 3-1 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Rublev, adding to previous wins against the 22-year-old at the 2018 J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad and this year’s US Open.

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The Vienna debutant, who has won 19 of his 26 most recent tour-level clashes, adds 90 points to his ATP Race To London total for his quarter-final win. With 2,660 points, eighth-placed Berrettini moves 130 points clear of Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard will aim to close the gap back to 40 points with a win against Reilly Opelka in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals today.

Rublev was aiming to record his 35th tour-level win of the year (34-18). The World No. 22 picked up his second ATP Tour crown last week at the VTB Kremlin Cup, dropping just four games against Adrian Mannarino in the championship match.

Did You Know?
This is the first time since 2010 that each of the top four seeds have reached the quarter-finals at the Erste Bank Open.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/31LRIQf