Berrettini retains Queen's title, looking good for Wimbledon
LONDON (AP) — Matteo Berrettini looks in prime shape for another deep run at Wimbledon.
The second-seeded Italian retained his grasscourt Queen's Club title by beating Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 in the final on Sunday. It backed up his title triumph in Stuttgart last week, which also was on grass.
Wimbledon starts June 27 and Berrettini is heading to the All England Club having won 20 of his last 21 matches on grass — his only loss coming against Novak Djokovic in four sets in last year's Wimbledon final.
“I couldn't ask for a better start to the grass season,” Berrettini said. “I am feeling really good — obviously a Slam is different, best-of-five sets. And a lot of pressure is going to be on me. But I guess that's normal.”
Krajinovic was a surprise finalist in west London, having never won a match on grass at ATP level before this week, and the 30-year-old Serb usually tries to skip grass-court events if he can.
“I hated it,” Krajinovic said of grass. “But I feel now I want to play on it more and more.”
His serve wasn't big enough to threaten the tall and imposing Berrettini, who only gave up two break points and sent down 14 aces — more than double that of Krajinovic. The last of those came on match point, after which he smashed a ball high into the sky and jumped the advertising hoardings to celebrate with his team and then his father on Father's Day.
Berrettini joined Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Marin Cilic and Feliciano Lopez in being a multiple title winner at Queen's since the turn of the century.
He has won every match since returning to action in Stuttgart after three months out with a hand injury.
“A few weeks ago I couldn't hold a racquet,” Berrettini said. “Now I'm here lifting the second trophy in a row.”
The Italian said he felt like crying when he thought about the journey he has been on since having surgery on his right hand, which needed treatment a few times this week.
“I arrived in Stuttgart and I wasn't feeling great, not hitting the ball the way I wanted, the way I used to do,” Berrettini said. "I was like, ‘Guys, I think it's going to be tough.'
"But it went pretty well. I guess I'm Italian, I'm always complaining. But I cannot complain now.”
Krajinovic lost his fifth straight ATP final, with two of them now coming against Berrettini. •••
HALLE, Germany (AP) — Hubert Hurkacz upset top-ranked Daniil Medvedev on Sunday to win the Halle Open and underline his credentials as a contender for Wimbledon two years running.
The big-serving Polish player needed just 63 minutes to beat Medvedev 6-1, 6-4 and win his first grasscourt title — an achievement he said he was “super excited” about.
Hurkacz was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year and seems on form again after a Halle tournament run in which he also beat defending champion Ugo Humbert, U.S. Open semifinalist Felix Auger-Aliassime and the in-form Australian Nick Kyrgios.
He's one of just seven men's players in the Open era to win all of their first five singles finals, the ATP Tour said, and moves up to 10th in the world rankings.
Medvedev has now lost back-to-back finals on grass after being stunned by then-205th-ranked Tim van Rijthoven last week in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Medvedev, who can't play Wimbledon this year because the All England Club has barred players from Russia and its ally Belarus, is now 13-12 in tour singles finals but 0-5 since winning his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in September.
••• BERLIN (AP) — Ons Jabeur won the Berlin Open on Sunday. In the moment, it didn't matter to her at all.
Jabeur was leading 6-3, 2-1 when Belinda Bencic signaled she couldn't continue in the final after hurting her left ankle in a fall in the first set. Jabeur gave Bencic words of comfort at the net, then hurriedly prepared a cooler with ice for the Swiss player to rest her injured ankle.
“I told her, ‘Forget about it, forget about today.' The most important thing for me is that she's OK,” Jabeur said.
Jabeur moves to 3-5 in career finals, almost a year to the day since the Tunisian won the Birmingham Classic and became the first Arab woman to lift a WTA singles title. Since then, she has surged up the rankings to become a fixture in the top five and won a notable victory at the Madrid Open last month. Her flag-waving Tunisian fans have been a fixture in Berlin all week and were in full voice Sunday.
Bencic started the match slowly, possibly due to fatigue from her grueling run of four threeset matches this week, but was soon firmly in the contest. She slipped and hurt her ankle chasing a wide serve while at deuce with Jabeur leading 5-3 in the first set. It was in a hard-fought game with four break points for Bencic.
Jabeur served out the first set before Bencic, last year's Olympic gold medalist, tried to play on in the second. She was in clear discomfort when serving and retired after Jabeur broke in the third game.
“You deserve this title and I really don't want to take this moment away from you,” Bencic told Jabeur.
••• BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil secured back-to-back WTA titles after Chinese opponent Shuai Zhang retired with an injury trailing 5-4 in the first set of the Birmingham Classic final on Sunday.
Haddad Maia hadn't won a senior title before arriving in England to play the Nottingham Open last week. Now she has two in her collection, both coming on grass courts.
The unseeded Haddad Maia and the eighth-seeded Zhang went into the final having won semifinal matches on Sunday morning — against second-seeded Simona Halep and Sorana Cirstea, respectively — after rain washed out the whole of Saturday.
Haddad Maia, who lost the first two games of the final, was preparing to serve for the first set when Zhang — who had consulted with medical staff during the changeover — walked slowly to the net and hugged her opponent. It was not immediately apparent what the injury was.
The two players teamed up to win the doubles title in Nottingham last week.
••• GAIBA, Italy (AP) — Top-seeded Alison Van Uytvanck beat Italian veteran Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3 to win the inaugural Veneto Open on Sunday.
For her sixth career title, the 47th-ranked Van Uytvanck completed the first WTA tournament played on natural grass in Italy without dropping a set.
The 35-year-old Errani, a French Open finalist a decade ago, is ranked No. 213.
All nine of Errani's career singles titles came before she served a doping ban in 2017 and 2018.
The Veneto Open was held in Gaiba, a village of less than 1,000 inhabitants — making it the smallest town in the world to host a WTA tournament. Organizers used former soccer fields for the courts.