Berrettini beats Simon in Austria to continue fine form

Fresh from winning his first ATP World Tour singles and doubles titles, Italian Matteo Berrettini beat Gilles Simon at the Generali Open.

Published : Aug 01, 2018 00:01 IST

Matteo Berrettini followed up winning his first ATP World Tour singles and doubles titles at the weekend by coming from a set down to beat Gilles Simon at the Generali Open.

The 22-year-old Italian said he played "the best tennis" of his life in winning two tournaments at the Swiss Open Gstaad last week and his purple patch continued as he fought back to beat Simon 1-6 6-3 6-4.

Frenchman Simon, the fifth seed in the competition, won the opening five games en route to a comfortable first-set success but was broken in his first service game in the next set, which Berrettini won to even things up.

In the tie-break, Simon broke first only for Berretini to win four games in a row to claim victory in just under two hours.

Top seed Dominic Thiem, who was awarded a first-round bye, will begin his campaign on home soil against Martin Klizan after the Slovakian overcame another Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-2 6-4.

Laslo Djere, Taro Daniel and Radu Albot all advanced without dropping a set, while Nicolas Jarry and Maximilian Marterer both won tie-breaks to also make it into the last 16.