matteo berrettini, hubert hurkacz Declare london queen's and halle titles within seconds of each other |Sports Flue
"matteo berrettini, hubert hurkacz Declare london queen's and halle titles"
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Matteo Berrettini and Hubert Hurkacz nearly crossed the
finish line at the same time on Sunday to win their respective ATP 500 events
and establish themselves as serious contenders for a major title at Wimbledon.
Berrettini began another great week by defeating Filip
Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 at the Queen's Club in London, denying him an ATP title for
the first time. To successfully defend his title, the Italian hit 14 aces and
only dropped service once.
"I couldn't hold a racquet a few weeks ago. I'm here for the second time in a row, lifting a trophy "Berretini stated.
"I couldn't ask for a better start to the grass season." Berrettini, the men's runner-up at Wimbledon last year, will enter the All England Club on a nine-match winning streak after capturing the Stuttgart title last weekend to start his comeback from a right-hand injury. On grass, he is now 33-6 in his career.
Are we looking at the future 2022 Wimbledon men's champion?
Hurkacz, meanwhile, is no
slouch on the surface, having made his major semifinal debut at SW19 in 2021.
It was there that he came back from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev and
then beat Roger Federer in straight sets, concluding with a third-set bagel.
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Medvedev was once again discovered across the net by the Pole, this time
with the Halle title on the line. He set the tone right away by rushing to a
5-0 lead, and Medvedev's coach Gilles Cervara had to leave the stadium at one
point in the second set as the world No. 1 couldn't keep up. Hurkacz, the fifth
seed, won 6-1, 6-4 to win his fifth ATP title in five finals and his first away
from hard courts.
"All the right shots went my way at the beginning, so I definitely gained a lot of momentum from that," Hurkacz said on-court.
This was a crucial week in terms of points for Berrettini and Hurkacz—maintaining in Berrettini's case and gaining in Hurkacz's. Following the ATP tour's decision to remove ranking points in response to the tournament's ban on Russian and Belarusian players, neither will be able to defend their Wimbledon results until 2021. (which prevented the likes of Medvedev from entering).
Berrettini eventually beat Hurkacz in the Wimbledon semifinals last year.
Hurkacz is expected to be placed No. 7 and Berrettini is expected to be ranked
No. 8 in the Top 8.
After winning his first major victory at the 2021 US Open,
Medvedev is presently 0-5 in finals. Krajinovic fell to 0-5 in title matches,
having never won a tour-level match on grass before this week.
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