Matteo Berrettini and Felix Auger-Aliassime will hit pause on their friendship for a couple of hours again Thursday when they go head-to-head in the third round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
When they last met at Wimbledon, the two Nitto ATP Finals contenders watched the Italy-Spain UEFA European Championships football match the day before in player dining with their girlfriends, who are cousins. The next day, Berrettini got down to business and toughed out a four-set win over the Canadian before continuing to his first Grand Slam final (l. Djokovic).
“I think we made a great match and I hope you guys enjoyed it,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview at Wimbledon. “He’s probably one of my best friends on tour, so it’s never easy to play against him. But that’s sport and I’m really happy.”
Playing his first tournament since Wimbledon following a thigh injury that sidelined him from the Olympics, Berrettini is eager to load up on points to maintain his slim margin in fourth place in the FedEx ATP Race to Turin over Andrey Rublev (fifth) and Alexander Zverev (sixth) , who are also alive in the Cincinnati third round.
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Auger-Aliassime also has an eye on being one of the eight players to make it to Turin, but in 16th place and 1,030 points behind eight-placed Casper Ruud, he’s got to make every appearance at the big events count in the final months of the season. Last week on home soil in Toronto he let an important opportunity slip when he dropped his opener.
Also in action Thursday, top seed Daniil Medvedev continues his quest to complete the Toronto-Cincinnati double when he takes on a revitalised Grigor Dimitrov, who has enjoyed impressive straight-sets wins over 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut and Alexander Bublik. Dimitrov has not taken a set from Medvedev in their two previous hard-court meetings.
Ninth seed and 2021 Miami champion Hubert Hurkacz, who is just 80 points behind Ruud in the Race, will meet Spain’s Olympic bronze medallist Pablo Carreno Busta, who is playing his first event since stunning Novak Djokovic in the medal round in Tokyo.
When he last played at the Lindner Family Tennis Centre in 2019, Rublev was ranked No. 70 and had to come through qualifying. He made the most of that opportunity, taking out Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer in consecutive matches before falling to eventual champion and fellow Russian Daniil Medvedev. This year he returns at No. 7 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, but still chasing his first ATP Masters 1000 title. On Thursday he will take a 1-0 ATP Head2Head advantage into his clash with Gael Monfils, who on Tuesday celebrated his 500th match win.
Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will be looking to repeat his hard-court win earlier in the year at the Miami Open when he plays Lorenzo Sonego in the first night match on Grandstand. The Greek did not face a break point in his 6-2, 7-6(2) win over the Italian in what has been their only meeting to date.
“He’s a passionate player. He brings the best out of himself in every single match that he gets to play,” Tsitsipas said. “Obviously I’m someone who is going to try and find solutions against any opponent that I’m going to be facing this week. Let the best man win.”
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
