Berrettini battles past in-form Tabilo in Kitzbühel

Matteo Berrettini extended his winning streak to seven matches on Wednesday in Kitzbühel when he ousted second seed Alejandro Tabilo 7-6(4), 7-6(5) for a place in the Generali Open quarter-finals.

“Definitely a tough match. He's having a great season. He's playing good, he's got a lot of confidence, a tricky lefty so for sure he likes to play in these conditions,” Berrettini said. “But I was confident with my level. I think I was serving really well apart from when I served for the match.

“But it can happen, it's tennis and really happy how I held my nerves and again two tie-breaks so it means that I was pretty focused and I think I did the right things in the right moments.”

Ascending in Austria ⚒️@MattBerrettini adds to his winning streak with a 7-6(4) 7-6(5) win over Tabilo to reach the QF!#GeneraliOpen pic.twitter.com/naw3DhOuye

Last week's Gstaad champion Berrettini relied on his first serve, landing 81 per cent of his first deliveries and winning 79 per cent of those points, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The Italian failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, but remained calm to take a 2-0 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“Having the chance to just play, feeling good, feeling healthy, fighting for matches is just what I wanted for so many months,” Berrettini said. “So I'm enjoying it and I'm really looking forward for my next match.”

The former No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings will next play American wild card Nicolas Moreno De Alboran, who eliminated fellow wild card Lukas Neumayer 6-4, 6-4. The 27-year-old reached his first ATP Tour quarter-final earlier this year in Marrakech.

Top seed and defending champion Sebastian Baez won an all-Argentine clash with Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 23 minutes.

Baez has already won two clay-court ATP Tour titles this season in Rio de Janeiro and Santiago and is trying to secure a third in Kitzbühel. One year ago, the Argentine defeated Dominic Thiem in the final.

In the first match of the day on centre court, German Yannick Hanfmann clawed past Brazilian lucky loser Gustavo Heide 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Hanfmann made the Kitzbühel final in 2020.

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