Roberto Carballés will defend his title this Sunday in Marrakech ATP Tour

Marrakech

Carballés will defend his title this Sunday in Marrakech

The Spaniard will face Berrettini in the final

April 06, 2024

Roberto Carballés adds new consecutive victories in Marrakech.
By ATPTour.com/es Staff

Roberto Carballés Baena is just one match away from completing one of the most complicated challenges in tennis: successfully defending a crown. And the Spaniard could do it this Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II.

The current champion in Marrakech booked a ticket for the final this Saturday, after beating Pavel Kotov 6-4, 6-2 in the first semifinal of the ATP 250 tournament in one hour and 39 minutes.

There are now nine consecutive victories for the 31-year-old Andalusian on Moroccan clay and only Matteo Berrettini can separate him from his third ATP Tour title.

Carballés, who celebrated his 100th ATP Tour victory this week, has beaten Matteo Gigante (first round), No. 3 seed Daniel Evans (second round), Nicolás Moreno de Alborán (quarterfinals) and Kotov ( semi-finals) to give themselves a chance to retain the title in Marrakech.

The No. 64 in the PIF ATP Rankings had not faced Kotov before, but he quickly managed to impose his game on the rest to end up converting four of the six break opportunities he had, while with his serve he defended himself from six of the seven he had his rival.

The Spaniard, who has an overall record of 15-3 in the tournament, will try to be the first player to defend the title since his compatriot Pablo Andújar was able to do so in 2018 and 2019.

For his part, Berrettini got a ticket to the last round in Marrakech, after coming back against Mariano Navone 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 42 minutes.

The Italian is appearing in the thirteenth final of his career, of which he has been able to win seven of them, and it will be the seventh he faces on clay (3-3). However, Berrettini had not made it this far in a clay-court tournament since Naples 2022 (l. with Musetti).

The final in Marrakech will be the fourth confrontation recorded by the Lexus ATP Head2Head between Berrettini and Carballés Baena, with a balance of 2-1 for the Italian. His last head-to-head duel was precisely in Naples 2022, where the current world No. 135 took the victory.

Did you know…?

Roberto Carballés Baena has won the two ATP Tour finals that he has played in his career in Quito 2018 and in Marrakech 2023. This Sunday he will have the opportunity to maintain his immaculate statistics in the Moroccan tournament.