Matteo Berrettini beat Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 after 2 hours and 27 minutes to reach the quarter final at the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open in Doha.
Berrettini claimed back-to-back wins on the ATP Tour for the first time since October. 2024.
Berrettini levelled to 1-1 in his head-to-head matches against Griekspoor avenging his recent defeat to the Dutchman in the first round in Rotterdam. The Italian player won 89% of his first serve points.
Griekspoor saved a break point in the first game, but there was only another game that went to deuce, when Griekspoor was serving. The set came down to the tie-break. Berrettini won five of the final six points thanks to his only mini-break at 4-3 to clinch the tie-break 7-4.
The second set went on serve without break points en route to the tie-break. Only two games went at deuce. There were three consedcutive mini-breaks from 1-1. Two were in Griekspoor’s favour. Berrettini saved a set point on his own serve before loing the point on his serve. Griekspoor won the tie-break 8-6 sending the match to the tie-break.
Both players went on serve without facing any break point until 4-4 in the third set, when Berrettini converted the only break point of the match before serving out the match with an ace.
Berrettini beat two-time Doha champion Novak Djokovic on Wednesday to secure his first career win over the former world number 1 player.
“I went on court really focused, I wasn’t feeling the ball as well as yesterday. I fought really hard [across] three sets. [I made] a couple of mistakes in the second-set tie-break, but I kept fighting. I’m really proud of my mental toughness”,said Berrettini.Berrettini set up a quarter final against Jack Draper, who cruised past Christopher O’Connell 6-2 6-1 to reach his sixth consecutive quarter final at ATP 500 tournaments.
