Matteo Berrettini and Jan-Lennard Struff complete the first round in Halle | ATP Tour

Halle

Berrettini and Struff complete the first round in Halle

The German will be Tsitsipas’ rival in the second round

June 19, 2024

This Wednesday there were still two games pending at the Terra Wortmann Open corresponding to the first round. And the places at stake went to Matteo Berrettini and Jan-Lennard Struff.

The Italian, who arrived at the ATP 500 in Halle as a recent finalist in Stuttgart, achieved victory against the American from the qualifying phase Alex Michelsen 7-6(5), 6-2 in one hour and 32 minutes.

Berrettini, who occupies No. 65 in the PIF ATP Rankings, plays in the German tournament as a ‘Special Exempts’. He had to recover from a hesitant start, where the American led 1-4, thanks to a break in the second game of the match.

With the confidence of having already linked four victories on the surface in this tour on grass, the 28-year-old Italian took the pulse of the match to not only recover the break against (4-4), but end up deciding on his side the first set in the tie-break.

13 direct serves and 81% of points won with the first serve decorated a statistic that also included three breaks converted into four opportunities.

Berrettini will face fellow American Marcos Giron in the second round in Halle, who this Tuesday surprised No. 4 seed Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-6(5). The only precedent that appears in the Lexus ATP Head2Head was in the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris in 2020 and fell on the side of the American.

For his part, Struff had to work until the end to get his ticket to the second round, because Luciano Darderi forced him to always play one more ball. Finally, the local player won 6-7(2), 7-5, 7-6(10) in two hours and 31 minutes.

The No. 41 in the PIF ATP Rankings needed ten match points to close out the 12-10 victory in the third set tie-break.

Struff will be the second-round opponent of No. 6 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who leads the Lexus ATP Head2Head 4-3. It will be the first time they measure each other on grass.

Did you know…?

Matteo Berrettini is playing his fifth ATP Tour tournament of the season in Halle, posting a match record in 2024 of 10-3 to date.