Monte Carlo Masters: Berrettini stuns Medvedev to reach third round

Monte Carlo: Wildcard entrant Matteo Berrettini produced a stunning performance to dismantle World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev 6-0, 6-0 in just 49 minutes and storm into the third round of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Wednesday.

The Italian dominated from start to finish against an unusually erratic Medvedev, who failed to create a single game F322 aspoint on his own serve. The defeat marked the first time the Russian has lost a tour-level match without winning a game.

Berrettini has now gone through his opening two matches in the Principality without dropping a game. In the first round, the 29-year-old was leading 4-0 when Roberto Bautista Agut retired due to injury.

The former World No. 6 also registered his first Top-10 victory since defeating Alexander Zverev at the same tournament last year. It was also the first time Berrettini recorded a 6-0, 6-0 win at the tour level.

Medvedev, who was playing his first clay-court match of the season after winning titles in Dubai and Brisbane earlier this year, struggled to find rhythm and committed 27 unforced errors during the one-sided contest.

With the emphatic win, Berrettini improved his head-to-head record against Medvedev to 1-3 and will next face either Joao Fonseca or Arthur Rinderknech in the third round.

“I think it was one of the best performances of my life. I think I missed three shots in the entire match and it is not easy against a tricky player like Daniil. I think the game plan was perfect and my weapons were working. I faced two break points in the first game and then after that it felt I was playing better than him. I was not expecting to win zero, zero like that.

But I kept my focus as I know one break or two breaks is not enough sometimes, so I kept pushing. I have been playing for a long time, so I felt it was really important to hold my serve at the start of the second set. It is a matter of a few points at the start and then when you go up two breaks you are more relaxed and the ball is [flying] out of your racquet,” Berrettini was quoted by ATP.

IANS