Google News
Italian tennis star Matteo Berrettini was happy that he managed to make a winning return on Tuesday at the Cincinnati Masters. Berrettini, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 8 in the world, returned to action for the first time since Wimbledon.
Berrettini, who battled a thigh injury post-Wimbledon, recovered from a set down to beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-7 (5) 6-3 7-5. "I'm happy for the win. I think I served really well. My strokes from the baseline weren't working the way I wanted them to, but I knew from the beginning it's been a long time since I played a match, especially on hard, so I expected to feel a little bit weird," Berrettini said, per the ATP website.
"But the most important thing was I was there, I fought every point, I tried to put myself in conditions where I could win the match. That's what I'm most happy about."
Berrettini acknowledged Ramos-Vinolas wasn't an easy opponent
As no breaks were seen in the first set -- the set had to be resolved in a tie-break -- in which Ramos-Vinolas converted his first set point to win a tight opener.
After losing the first set, Berrettini responded as he broke Ramos-Vinolas in the sixth game and served out for the set in the ninth game. Berrettini then claimed the lone break of the third set in the 11th game, before serving out for the match a game later.
"Ramos is a player who makes a lot of balls," Berrettini said. "I saw the stats and I ran more than him, which is pretty weird for my game. But today that's what I felt I had to do in order to win the match and I'm really happy that I'm going to have the chance to play another match because that's what I need. I need to play matches. I need to get in the best shape possible."