Matteo Berrettini has been playing some really strong tennis recently, continuing his winning streak at the 2024 Kitzbuhel Open.
The Italian missed much of last year due to an injury but returned earlier this year with a lot of motivation. Just weeks into his comeback, he won his first trophy at the Marrakech Open on clay.
That was followed by some minor injury problems again, but he has been healthy for a while and playing really well. He made the Stuttgart Open final, where he lost to Jack Draper, and won his second trophy of this year last week in Gstaad.
It was a great moment for him because he returned there six years after winning his maiden ATP trophy, and getting a chance to lift the trophy again was just a memorable moment for him. It was a fully deserved trophy run because, for an entire week, Berrettini was by far the best player in the town.
He then made his way to Kitzbuhel, where he continued his winning ways, earning his sixth win in a row by beating Pavel Kotov in the first round of the ATP 250 tournament.
The Italian has been playing a lot of tennis recently because he won't be competing at the Paris Olympics, so these smaller events are a great chance for him to find his rhythm again.
The great thing for him about Gstaad and Kitzbuhel is that they are high-altitude events, which greatly benefits his service, which was also on display in this match.
He got broken early by Kotov in this match, but eventually, he found his way back into the match. After breaking back, Berrettini was simply unbreakable on his serve, dominating comfortably.
Kotov has a similar skillset and a really great first serve, so the first set ended up being a tie-break, but the Italian was untouchable on his serve and won it 8-6.
He dropped only five points behind his first serve in the opening set and allowed only one break point. The second set opened with an early break point for the Italian, but he wasn't able to use it.
It wasn't a huge problem for him because he was still untouchable on his serve despite Kotovo really trying. The Russian was risking more in rallies, but it didn't yield any results.
Kotov found a decent rhythm in the second set as well, so Berrettini struggled to create much pressure. He was seemingly more than content to battle it out in yet another tie-break as risky as that is.
The set ended up in another tie-break as Berrettini simply fancied his chances in it well. He dropped only two points on his serve in the entire second set before the tie-break.
Kotov was able to avoid any break points as well, but unfortunately, the tie-break wasn't a good gamble for him. He ended up losing it 5-7 because Berrettini hit his first serve 97 % of the time in the second set and lost only 3 points when he did, winning the match 7-6(6), 7-6(5) to find himself in the next round.
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