BUDAPEST, April 22, 2019
The first four players advanced to the second round of the Hungarian Open on a mostly sunny, but also windy Easter Monday in Budapest. Matteo Berrettini of Italy knocked off No. 7 seed Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan in the opening match on Centre Court, winning 6-4, 6-4.
The 23-year-old from Rome fired 11 aces and broke his opponent’s serve five times to seal victory in one hour and 26 minutes.
“It was a tough match with a couple of long rallies but I felt good on the court and always felt the chance that I could break him in every game,” Berrettini told Tennis TourTalk.
The World No. 55 opened his clay court season in Monte-Carlo last week, falling to Grigor Dimitrov in the first round. Berrettini also had the chance to follow the win of his fellow Italian player Fabio Fognini at the Masters 1000 event in Monaco.
“He improved with every match. Of course the most important win was in the final but he beat Rafa, which was an unbelievable performance. I am really happy for him as well as for Italian tennis in general.”
Berrettini will next take on Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, who defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 7-6(5), 6-4. The 29-year-old Ljubljana native came back from a break down in the first set to finish the encounter after one hour and 39 minutes.
Later in the day, No. 8 seed Radu Albot from Moldova edged past lucky loser Sergiy Stakhovsky from the Ukraine 7-5, 6-4 to meet Filip Krajinovic in the second round. The Serbian qualifier battled past Andreas Seppi from Italy 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-5.
Robin Haase autograph session @robin_haase @ATP_Tour #HungarianOpen pic.twitter.com/OvzkUybTAt
— HUNtennis (@HUNgarianTENNIS) 22. April 2019
Defending champion Marco Cecchinato of Italy announced his withdrawal from the ATP 250 event due to illness. He will be replaced by Matthias Bachinger from Germany, who awaits the winner of the encounter between Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Results
M. Berrettini (ITA) d [7] M. Kukushkin (KAZ) 64 64
[8] R. Albot (MDA) d [LL] S. Stakhovsky (UKR) 75 64
A. Bedene (SLO) d B. Tomic (AUS) 76(5) 64
[Q] F. Krajinovic (SRB) d A. Seppi (ITA) 62 67(3) 75
