ATP 1000 Montecarlo, Berrettini advances to the second round after Bautista’s withdrawal

John

By John

Quick and painless debut for Matteo Berrettini in the «Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters», the third «1000» of the season, with a prize pool of 6,309,095 euros, which is being played on the red clay of the Monte-Carlo Country Club, in the Principality of Monaco. In the match that opened the program on Court Ranieri III (the Central court of the Country Club), the 29-year-old Roman, number 90 in the ranking, in the draw thanks to a wild card, overcame the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, number 85 ATP, brought back into the draw as a lucky loser, forced to retire due to a physical problem in the middle of the first set, with a score of 4-0 in favor of the blue after just 23 minutes of the match. In the second round Berrettini will have to face the Russian Daniil Medvedev, number 10 in the ranking and seventh seeding favourite: the 30-year-old Muscovite has won all three previous matches with the blue, but the two have not met since the round robin of the 2022 ATP Cup. Furthermore, the two have never faced each other on the “red”, a surface on which Berrettini has won 6 of his 10 trophies.