Matteo Berrettini’s journey at the ATP 500 in Halle ends in the second round. The Roman comes out defeated, falling at a distance, against the American Marcos Giron, who defeats him 3-6 6-4 6-3 and repeats the victory of Paris-Bercy 2020 (when, however, the then Italian number 1 was in a really bad phase of his career). It will therefore be the Californian who will challenge the Pole tomorrow at noon Hubert Hurkacz at the beginning of the program.
Berrettini started off very strong straight away, with the break to zero testifying to a phase of play of the highest level (net of Giron’s double fault at 0-40). The American takes off after conceding 12 of the first 14 points, but basically nothing really relevant happens in the rest of the set. This is because, if on the one hand Giron manages to play a little more, on the other the Roman’s serve is practically unapproachable. The result is a quick 6-3.
The USA really starts to show itself in the second game of the second set, but, at 0-15, they have to give up the longest rally of the match to Berrettini who hits it with the winning forehand. Apart from this moment, the film of the set resembles the previous one in some ways, with the substantial difference that there is no initial break to make the difference. The Italian has a glimmer of chance at 3-3, when he gets up to 30-30, but there is no way to make more progress. At 4-5 it is Berrettini who takes the risk, being forced into the advantage by a great response from his opponent. The game gets longer, Giron enters with a forehand and after an hour there are two set points with Berrettini who finds himself abandoned by the first. At the same time, his opponent raises the level of play like never before in the match, he mocks the Roman on the counterattack on the second chance and extends the match.
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The former world number 6 reacts rather well, goes up to 0-30, then comes the two break points at 15-40 after two long exchanges. However, these go away, with the Roman not in the best moment for lucidity and, in the following game, he is still forced to save himself from the advantages. Berrettini’s problems, when entering the exchange, begin to increase, a symptom of a decline in energy: the almost thirty-one-year-old Californian goes to 0-30, then to 15-40, and it is the second chance that condemns the Roman, with Giron who pushes to the backhand and goes to 4-2. There is no more room for a comeback for the blue team, who actually have to recover from 0-30 at 5-2. He saves himself, but then witnesses unreal shots from the American, such as a tight cross-court forehand pass. And the 6-3 comes quickly.
Despite Berrettini’s obvious physical decline, it should still be noted that Giron, apart from the first three games, always manages to be solid. And the percentage of points won with the first team does a lot, at 84% (42/50), which then becomes 94% (17/18) in the third set alone. Of course, in that case the Roman scores 9/13, which isn’t bad in truth: the problem is that in the last partial out of 24 firsts 13 come in. And, at the same time, the increase in performance on the other side does the rest.
