ATP Tournament in London, Round of 16, Thursday, 16.06.2022
Win the tournament at the Queens Club in London quickly and then travel to Wimbledon with a broad chest. This is the goal with which several top stars are currently competing in the English capital. Among them is also the defending champion.
One who won the tournament in Halle directly after a comeback and now wants to secure the second trophy in a row. The bookmakers are certain: the round of 16 is a mere formality. In my Kudla Berrettini tip, I explain why I would place just such a bet!
Matteo Berrettini and his way back. Did the Italian himself expect to be back in top form so quickly? He had to take two months off, his entire season on clay fell victim to his injury.
As one knows from the Roman, he attracted attention with close results at the recent tournament in Halle. But this should not be an indication of a lack of fitness, because even in top condition he delivers such results.
In the end, it didn’t matter how much some matches were on a knife’s edge, Berrettini won the tournament in three sets against Andy Murray. Now he wants to be jubilant again in London.
A year ago he won the title here, eliminating Stefano Travaglia, Andy Murray, Daniel Evans, Alex de Minaur and Cameron Norrie. As one is used to from Berrettini, only one match had less than 20 games to offer.
Is it a good omen that a certain Daniel Evans was already on the match sheet this year? Berrettini had to play the Briton in the 1st round and won a very clear 6-3, 6-3.
With 21 aces, he didn’t let Evans break once, used three of his seven opportunities himself. The world number 10 showed us just how important the tournament in London can be last year.
After his triumph at the Queens Club, he stormed unstoppably into the final of Wimbledon, where he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets. Before he can get his hands on the trophy again, he must first keep Denis Kudla at bay.
The two dueled four times in 2018 and 2019, in fact the head-to-head is 2-2, with the only match on grass, in Stuttgart three years ago, going straight to Berrettini 6-3, 6-3.
Kudla had to survive two qualifying rounds to get into the main draw. First he defeated Taro Daniel 6-4, 1-6, 6-0, then he beat Quentin Halys 7-6, 6-4 in the final.
The qualification was not without problems, Kudla also had to serve detention in his first round. However, if a detention brings a victory against Lorenzo Sonego, the 29-year-old must have rather enjoyed it.
At 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, his serve was actually worse than his opponent’s and he only used five of 13 break chances. So you could say that Kudla’s victory was also due to the fact that Sonego had a bad day.
Kudla, the world number 82, rarely stands out with really strong performances against the world’s best. When he does get really far, the opponents were all ranked far behind Matteo Berrettini.
My Kudla Berrettini Tip
Matteo Berrettini looks like he never left.
As I could see in my analysis, he is improving from match to match. Since Denis Kudla’s results are much less convincing, I trust the Italian to celebrate his second outright victory in London. So I’m betting:
Berrettini wins with 2:0!
