Italy’s Matteo Berrettini became the first ever winner of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown when he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final on Sunday.
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Berrettini, who had earlier participated in the Thiem’s 7 Invitational tournament and made it to the semifinal, won his final 3-2, needing a sudden death tie-breaker in the final set.
The matches in UTS are played over five quarters, with the first four of them bound by a time-limit. Berrettini won the first two quarters in the final before Tsitsipas rallied back to level the score. In the final set, Berrettini won three points to Tsitsipas’ two to bring home the cup.
The Italian had earlier lost to Andrey Rublev in the semifinal at the Thiem’s 7 Invitational competition in Austria before taking the journey to Nice in France where the UTS semifinals and final were held.
Needing to overcome Richard Gasquet in the semifinal, Berrettini needed another five quarters to come through that match. He won 24-8, 12-14, 16-12, 10-13, 2-1 to come through to the final.
In the league stage of the competition, Berrettini, ranked eighth in the world, had won five of his eight matches. He was at the receiving end of a gruelling defeat at the hands of Tsitsipas, one that had seen the match go to the fifth quarter again.
Speaking at the end of the match, Berrettini said:
“One of the biggest qualities a tennis player can have is the ability to adapt. I think I did a good job doing that this week.”
One of the forthcoming exhibition events now is the women’s Progress Tour which will be played in the UK from July 14.
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