Matteo Berrettini is in a state of grace. Probably the most fit tennis player of the moment since the exhibition tours started after the break due to the pandemic. His victim today was the Spanish Roberto Bautista, who succumbed in the semifinal of the Berlin exhibition tournament before the Italian gunshots by a score of 4-6, 6-3 and 10-6. The current number 8 of the ATP will play another final in just three days after conquer the Ultimate Tennis Showdown last Sunday, Measuring this Wednesday with the winner of the Thiem-Sinner.
On a hot day, with social distance in the stands and total absence of masks (Yes, they were carried by the ball boys and members of the organization), Berrettini started like a real cyclone. The serves at more than 200 km / h followed one after another, impossible even for a great restaurant like the Castellón, who also resolved his services with aplomb without accusing the antagonistic change of surface with which he traveled to Berlin (he came from playing Thiem's exhibition on clay). The Italian, who had also come from playing fast track at Patrick Mouratoglou's UTS, began to award break balls in the fifth game against the Baptist's insistent pressure. He was saved there, but could not avoid the break in the seventh game and the Castellón closed the set with solvency (6-4).
In the second sleeve the script was kept at the beginning. Bautista traced his game scheme and made the Italian go mad at times, who let loose some “Mamma Mia” not finding answers. But in the third game, Roberto slipped on the net and since that spectacular fall he changed the future of the set. Physical discomfort or not, Berrettini's level grew until he got his first break after more than an hour of play. He closed the partial blank and reached the streak super-break, which was decisive. With that positive inertia won the clash with a hoot, Nadal-style, with a passing shot in a huge race. There are already three consecutive wins that the transalpine adds to Bautista, since at the Thiems7 held in Austria he also won his two duels with the Spanish. Thiem, who beat another Italian, Jannick Sinner, in the other semifinal (6-3 and 7-6 (5)) will have a very difficult time in the final with this great version of Berrettini …