Italy’s Matteo Berrettini on Sunday reported his intention to present another strong challenger at Wimbledon after joining an elite group of players while retaining his ATP Queen’s Club title. Berrettini defeated Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 7-5, 6-4 in the final of Wimbledon practice event. After losing to Novak Djokovic in last year’s final, he will now aim for a better showing at Wimbledon, one of tennis’ only four majors that are still played on grass.
Berrettini’s win meant he joined John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Baker, Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray as the only player to win back-to-back Queen’s titles in the Open Era.
The world number 10 has been in excellent grass-court form this season after returning from hand surgery.
After defeating Murray in Stuttgart last weekend, the 26-year-old Berrettini has now won two tournaments in a row, and Sunday’s success just eight days before the start of Wimbledon further boosted his confidence.
Krajinovic, who had never won a match on grass before this week, was the first player to lose serve in Sunday’s final.
But the world No. 48 made a spectacular comeback to jump straight to the 3-3 level.
Berrettini, however, took a 6-5 lead and then retained the serve to win the first set.
Krajinovic’s chance was gone and Berrettini broke midway through the second set and ended the match with an ace.
“There’s a lot of emotion,” Berrettini said shortly after his latest win. “The last thing I expected after a surgery was to have two titles in a row and defend my title here. I can’t believe it.
“Every time I walk here in the hallways and see the names of all the champions of the past, and now knowing it’s me, twice, the same wall gives me goosebumps.”
Meanwhile, Krajinovic was buoyed by a performance that gave him hope of improving on a poor record at Wimbledon, where he suffered four first-round defeats.
“It was amazing the last 10 days, it was very emotional to be in my first final on the grass,” he said.
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“Just before this tournament I never won a match on grass and I hated playing on grass. But I think now I want to play more and more.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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