Wimbledon, United Kingdom, July 9, 2021 (AFP) – Ninth-ranked Matteo Berrettini qualified Friday at Wimbledon for his first Grand Slam final, defeating Poland’s 18th-placed Hubert Hurkacz ( who eliminated Roger Federer in the quarter-finals), 3 sets to 1, with parts 6-3, 6-0, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4.
Berrettini, who is the first Italian player at Wimbledon, will face the winner of the match between the world number one, Novak Djokovic and Canadian Denis Shapovalov (12th) in the other semi-final match.
Djokovic is chasing his sixth title in the ultra-traditional tournament in London, thus equaling the record of 20 major titles currently belonging to Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Berrettini commented: “I never dreamed of it, it was so big … But now that I’ve lived, I must believe it!”.
After winning the Queen’s Championship before Wimbledon, he will now be the first Italian to play in the final of his only Grand Slam tournament on grass.
At this edition of Wimbledon, Berrettini topped his best performance at a Grand Slam, which was the semi-finals of the 2019 US Open.
At Wimbledon, he is participating for the third time and his best result so far was a duel in the round of 16 in 2019. Then he was beaten hard (6-1, 6-2, 6-2) by Federer.
Hurkacz failed to repeat the exploits of the previous rounds on Friday, after eliminating Federer in the quarter-finals, and world number two, Russian Daniil Medvedev, in the round of 16.
From the moment the match was 2-3 in the first set, the Italian adjusted 11 matches to win the first and second set and open up 1-0 in the third set.
Hurkacz was able to strike back in this third set which he won in the “tie break”, but in the fourth set Berrettini took control of the situation and ended up securing his place in the final.
“I think I deserved to win the third set. But when I lost it, I told myself it wasn’t serious. That was important,” said Brittini.
ig / chc / general
