STUTTGART, June 16, 2019
Matteo Berrettini claimed his second title on the ATP Tour this season. The 23-year-old Italian defeated No. 7 seeded Canadian young gun Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(11) in Sunday’s singles final of the MercedesCup.
Berrettini withstood 16 aces, hitting six of his own to prevail after one hour and 47 minutes. The World No. 30 didn’t lost his serve during the entire week in Stuttgart to become the first Italian to win an ATP Tour grass-court singles title since Andreas Seppi triumphed at Eastbourne in 2011.
Berrettini took away from Swabia €117,050 in prize money, 250 ATP-Ranking points as well as a brand new Mercedes-Benz EQC Edition.
Bello Berrettini! 🇮🇹
Matteo Berrettini wins his third ATP title, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4 7-6(11) at the @MercedesCup 🏆 pic.twitter.com/f5BZo9TU4E
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 16. Juni 2019
“I never lost my serve, but all the matches were so close and I’m really happy for what I did on the court because it was mentally really difficult to stay there and I’m really proud of myself,” Berrettini said. “You’re feeling good during the week, but you never know. I played great guys. This match was unbelievable. We had chances, a lot of set points for him, match points for me, so it was a really tough one. I’m really happy the way I fought during the week.”
Berrettini will stay in Germany for another week, facing sixth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in the first round of the NOVENTI OPEN in Halle.
In his third final, 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime was attempting to become the youngest ATP Tour singles champion since Kei Nishikori at 2008 Delray Beach
“It’s been an amazing week whatever the outcome was today. I think I surprised myself every match this week being able to reach another final and my first one on grass, so it’s been amazing,” said Auger-Aliassime, who played his first grass-court tournament as a professional. “Obviously Matteo was too good today. I gave it my all, but he played good in the important moments and he deserves it.”
Peers/Soares win maiden team title
Earlier on Centre Court at the Tennis Club Weissenhof, John Peers from Australia and Brazilian Bruno Soares took the doubles trophies. The top seeds beat Rohan Bopanna of India and #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 7-5, 6-3. The final lasted 68 minutes.
Two super doubles players teaming up for a big win 👌
Congratulations, @johnwpeers and @BrunoSoares82! 🏆
🎥: @MercedesCup pic.twitter.com/DECAUvMIzq
— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) 16. Juni 2019
“It feels amazing, especially after the first round,” Soares said after winning his maiden team title with Peers. “We had a very tough draw, starting play against the Germans, Struff and Puetz. They played extremely well to be honest, we got lucky at the end… We were down a set and a break and from that moment, it just felt like the week just completely turned. We started playing extremely well and now, here we are one week later with the trophy.”
Organizers pleased with 2019 edition
Earlier in the day, organizers of the MercedesCup announced that more than 50,000 spectators attended this week’s matches at the Tennis Club Weissenhof. Six players ranked inside the Top 20 were part of this year’s line-up
Final news conference with Edwin Weindorfer, Bettina Haussmann and Gert Brander (photo: MercedesCup)
“It was great that Germany’s No. 1 player Alexander Zverev was here in Stuttgart. Of course, we also want to go into the future together with him and we will try to set the course for this over the next few weeks,” tournament director Edwin Weindorfer said.
“We are developing the MercedesCup also in a social way. Therefore, we were very pleased that we were able to welcome celebrity chef Johann Lafer as well as Lothar Matthaus, Stefan Kretzschmar or Franz Klammer in Stuttgart this year,” said Weindorfer.
The ATP Tour will return to the capital city of Baden-Württemberg next year with the 42nd edition of the MercedesCup to be held on 6 to 14 June 2020.
