Stefanos Tsitsipas Pulls Through Madrid Open Finalist Matteo Berrettini at Italian Open 2021

The Italian Open 2021 has reached its pre-quarters stage, and fans got to watch a classic encounter. Facing World No.9 Matteo Berrettini, World No.5 Stefanos Tsitsipas played really well and defeated the Italian in straight sets. The finals scoreline of the match was 7(7)-6(3), 6-2.

Set-1: Stefanos Tsitsipas wins the really close set in the tie-breaker

The set began on a high for Stefanos Tsitsipas as he won the first game. However, Matteo Berrettini fought back in the second game and equalized the scoreline at 1-1.

The two players were extremely dominant on their serves. The same story continued as both Stefanos and Berrettini continued to win on their respective serves. Interestingly, none of them managed to even earn a single break-point in the whole set. Therefore, the scoreline soon became 6-6, and the set entered into the tie-breaker.

In the tie-breaker, Berrettini took an early 2-0 lead. He was even leading at 3-1 before something extraordinary took place. World No.5 Tsitsipas came back strong and won six back-to-back points, thus winning the tie-breaker 7-3. As a result, he conquered the tiring set 7-6 after playing some phenomenal tennis for 50 minutes.

Set-2: Matteo Berrettini tries hard but Tsitsipas emerges as the winner

Berrettini got off to a poor start in the set, hitting the net too often. It was Tsitsipas who continued his momentum and even earned three break-points- the first for anyone in the match. However, he failed to capitalize on any of them- allowing Berrettini to take the early lead.

Tsitsipas struck back hard and leveled the scoreline in the next game. He played some beautiful forehands and finally broke in the subsequent game to take the lead at 2-1. Even though Berrettini gained 2 break-points in the next game, Tsitsipas saved both of them and extended his lead to 3-1 at the end of the fourth game.

Berrettini regained his form and narrowed down the margin in the next game. However, Tsitsipas was just not ready to give any sort of momentum and went on to win the next game to take his lead to 4-2. He was now just two games away from reaching the quarters of the Italian Open 2021.

Tsitsipas broke again and was no leading 5-2. He didn’t take long and ended the match in the next game- conquering the set 6-2, and thus, winning the match. He’ll next face Novak Djokovic in the quarters of the Rome Masters 2021.