Zverev defeats Berrettini to win second Madrid title
Alexander Zverev recovered from a set down to defeat Matteo Berrettini 6-7 (8/10), 6-4, 6-3 and win the Madrid Open for a second time Sunday as he clinched a fourth Masters 1000 title.
The German fifth seed recorded his third consecutive top-10 victory this week, having eliminated five-time Madrid champion Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem to reach the final.
Zverev, last year’s US Open runner-up, added to his 2018 Madrid triumph as he denied Berrettini successive titles following the Italian’s win in Belgrade last month.
“It is great (to win this title), especially after losing my last three finals I played at Masters 1000 events,” Zverev said. “This is definitely special and I just want to enjoy this one.” Zverev is targeting a second Rome title at the Foro Italico next week. He captured his first Masters there in 2017 before also winning in Montreal later that year. “Rome is also an event I like and enjoy, so I hope I can perform in the same way as I did here and we will see how it goes there. I feel awesome,” said Zverev.
Berrettini, making his Madrid main draw debut this week, was attempting to become this year’s third first-time Masters champion after Hubert Hurkacz (Miami) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (Monte Carlo).
“I think we had a great fight. It’s tough, this sport is crazy. It’s a really good moment of my career but at the same time it’s not that great because I lost,” said Berrettini.
World number 10 Berrettini landed the first blow as he broke Zverev to move 4-3 ahead in the opening set at the Caja Magica, only to drop his service the very next game.
The Italian raced into a 5-0 lead in the tie-break but Zverev clawed it back to 5-4 before two set points slipped beyond the grasp of Berrettini.
Zverev failed to take a set point of his own at 7-6 and then saved a third, but a double fault at 8-8 handed Berrettini another opportunity that this time he did not let go to waste.It was the first set lost by Zverev, whose last claycourt title had come in Geneva in 2019.