Berrettini cuts through tie-break tension in Kitzbühel opener

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/matteo-berrettini/bk40/overview'Matteo Berrettini/a arrived in Kitzbuuml;hel with a title-winning confidence, and the Italian needed every bit of it to avoid an early exit on Tuesday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/kitzbuhel/319/overview'Generali Open/a. /p

p The Italian, who on Sunday clinched his second ATP Tour crown of the season in Gstaad, overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pavel-kotov/k09f/overview'Pavel Kotov/a 7-6(6), 7-6(5) at the Austrian clay ATP 250. Berrettini rallied from a break down in the opening set and also saved a set point in the first-set tie-break before going on to seal a two-hour, 16-minute first-round triumph. /p

p ldquo;A really tough match. I expected that,rdquo; said Berrettini after his win. ldquo;Itrsquo;s still clay and at altitude, but itrsquo;s completely different [to Gstaad]. It took me some games to get used to the conditions, but the most important thing is that the more I was playing, the more I was feeling good. Irsquo;m really happy for my win and looking forward to my next match.rdquo; /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

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The close win goes to a href="https://twitter.com/MattBerrettini?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@MattBerrettini/a 7-6(6) 7-6(5) over Kotova href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeneraliOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#GeneraliOpen/a a href="https://t.co/I7YtbyfCAu"pic.twitter.com/I7YtbyfCAu/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1815796679917949383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 23, 2024/a/blockquote

script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

p The No. 50 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Berrettini won 86 per cent (49/57) of points behind his first serve against Kotov, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Now 13-1 on clay since the start of the 2023 season, the Italian will take on second seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-tabilo/te30/overview'Alejandro Tabilo/a in the second round in Kitzbuuml;hel. It will be the second Lexus ATP Head2Head clash between the pair, and the first on clay. /p

p ldquo;Hersquo;s having a great season. He won two titles and went deep in Rome as well," said Berrettini of Tabilo. "Hersquo;s definitely feeling confident, but I am as well, so I think itrsquo;s going to be a great match. We played once in Indian Wells, so completely different conditions and different moments in our careers. I expect a battle, but I am ready for it.rdquo;/p

[ATP APP]

pLater on Tuesday, home favourite a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/dominic-thiem/tb69/overview'Dominic Thiem/a was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/thiago-agustin-tirante/t0a1/overview'Thiago Agustin Tirante/a in his farewell appearance at his home event. The 30-year-old Austrian announced in May that he would retire at the end of the 2024 season and has now played his final clay-court match on the ATP Tour./p

pChampion in 2019, Thiem closed his Kitzbuuml;hel account with a 18-10 record in 11 appearances at the ATP 250. He made three finals at the event mdash; his most at any tour-level tournamentmdash; including in 2023, when he lost to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-baez/b0bi/overview'Sebastian Baez/a in the title match./p

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pArgentina's Tirante, who reached his first ATP Tour semi-final last week in Bastad, moved up four places into the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings with the victory, in which he did not face a break point./p

p In other action a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lukas-neumayer/n0cs/overview'Lukas Neumayer/a edged a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-ofner/o513/overview'Sebastian Ofner/a 6-4, 4-7, 7-6(3) in a battle of home favourites, while a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hugo-gaston/g09o/overview'Hugo Gaston/a outlasted a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-altmaier/ae14/overview'Daniel Altmaier/a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4. a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/facundo-diaz-acosta/d0cg/overview'Facundo Diaz Acosta/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-elahi-galan/ge33/overview'Daniel Elahi Galan/a also advanced and will face off in the second round. Diaz Acosta downed his fellow Argentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/federico-coria/ce77/overview'Federico Coria/a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, while Galan defeated lucky loser a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hamad-medjedovic/m0jf/overview'Hamad Medjedovic/a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p