‘The last thing I expected’ – Matteo Berrettini retains Queen’s Club title
World number 11 Matteo Berrettini was crowned champion at the Cinch Championships at Queen’s Club for the second year running as he continued his impressive form ahead of Wimbledon.
The back-to-back winner served up 14 aces as he dominated on serve to edge out Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 to claim the title.
Despite an exchange of breaks in the middle of the first set, the Italian had the set sewn up in just under an hour after ramping up the intensity and power in his groundstrokes as he began to dominate from beyond the baseline.
Berrettini carried this intensity into the second set and continued to attack Krajinovic, who had won his first tour-level match on the surface earlier that week.
In the set, the man from Rome won 86% of his first-serve points and gained the decisive break in the fifth game, holding his nerve to close the set with an ace to win his ninth match in a row.
By triumphing in London, Matteo Berrettini became the first player in the Open Era to win titles in his first two appearances in London.
Reflecting on his second successive title after winning in Stuttgart the week before, the 26-year-old said it was “the last thing he expected” following his surgery back in March.
Berrettini told reporters, “there were too many emotions. I don’t even know (how it feels to defend the title), there are too many emotions.
“The last thing that I expected was coming back from the surgery and winning two times in a row, defending my title here at one of the most prestigious tournaments that we have.
“I don’t want to cry, but most of it is down to them, my teammates and family, the people that are close to me, I just cannot believe it”
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