TennisNH

Berrettini Moves Into Antalya Quarter-finals

10-Jan-2021 13:49:00 | ATP World Tour

Matteo Berrettini booked his place in the Antalya Open quarter-finals on Sunday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Dimitar Kuzmanov.

The top seed dropped just two points behind his first serve (26/28) and broke serve on five occasions to reach the last eight in 68 minutes. Berrettini is yet to drop a set in Antalya this week.

“The more matches I play, the better I feel,” said Berrettini. “The conditions are pretty slow here, so you need to make sure not be too passive like at the end of the second set. But besides that, I felt good."

The World No. 10 is chasing his first ATP Tour trophy on hard courts. Berrettini’s three previous tour-level title runs came at clay (2) and grass (1) events.

The 24-year-old, who qualified for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, will meet Alexander Bublik for a semi-final spot at the ATP 250. Bublik saved seven of eight break points to overcome Tristan Lamasine of France 6-2, 6-4.

“I played Bublik on the ATP Challenger Tour in Istanbul in 2017,” said Berrettini. “He serves very well. He’s unpredictable. We’ll see how it goes, I’m feeling well.”

Jeremy Chardy needed two hours and 53 minutes to book his place in the quarter-finals. The 33-year-old held his nerve in three tie-break sets to eliminate third seed Fabio Fognini 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 7-6(5).

Chardy, who served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, was forced to break serve at 5-6 in the decider to reach a final-set tie-break. The Frenchman converted his first match point to earn his second win in six ATP Head2Head meetings against Fognini and book a quarter-final clash against Jan-Lennard Struff.