Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini surprised everyone by beating the world’s third-ranked player, Novak Djokovic, in the first round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. The final score was 7-6 (4), 6-2. This was Berrettini’s first win against Djokovic after four tries and his first victory over a top-10 player since 2023!
In other matches, second-seed Alex de Minaur from Australia won against Russia’s Roman Safiullin 6-1, 7-5. Fourth-seed Daniil Medvedev stopped the defending champ, Russian Karen Khachanov, with scores of 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Fifth-seed Andrey Rublev also scored a win against Kazakhstani player Alexander Bublik with a score of 6-3, 6-4.
In a long match that lasted almost three hours, Serbian player Hamad Medjedovic knocked out sixth-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece, winning 7-6 (6), 5-7, 7-6 (5). Other players who moved to the next round included Nuno Borges from Portugal, Luca Nardi from Italy, Tallon Griekspoor, Botic van de Zandschulp from the Netherlands, Zizou Bergs from Belgium, and Felix Auger-Aliassime from Canada.
In Rio Open news, top player Alexander Zverev faced some struggles but still managed to defeat China’s Yunchaokete Bu with scores of 7-6 (4), 6-4. Zverev started strong but fell behind before making an incredible comeback in the first-set tiebreaker.
Other exciting matches in Rio featured fourth-seed Francisco Cerundolo from Argentina beating France’s Hugo Gaston 7-6 (9), 6-0 and fifth-seed Sebastian Baez winning against Roman Andres Burruchaga in an all-Argentine match, 6-3, 7-5. Eighth-seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry from Argentina was also a winner against France’s Corentin Moutet with scores of 6-3, 7-6 (1).
Another lucky upset happened with Camilo Ugo Carabelli from Argentina defeating seventh-seed Pedro Martinez from Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Other players who moved on included Italy’s Luciano Darderi, Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur, and Portugal’s Jaime Faria.
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