Team Europe’s Matteo Berrettini of Italy beat world #13 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Team World 7-6 4-6 10-7 in London on Saturday to restore his team’s lead in the Laver Cup. Team Europe now lead the tie 3-2 after Team World came back from a 0-2 deficit to equalize the score on Friday. The match lasted for a little more than two hours and was fiercely contended. In the end, however, Berrettini managed to keep his nose ahead to win ultimately. Now, let’s take a look at three things that stood out in the match:
#1 The match began on a scrappy note with both players committing a lot of errors:
The match did not start on a great note with both the players were somewhat error-prone. Auger-Aliassime was the more profligate of the two and committed unforced errors at regular intervals, especially off his forehand. However, the 22-year-old Canadian often approached the net quite early on in a point and hit a few thunderous overhead smashes. Berrettini, meanwhile, struggled off the backhand wing and gifted his opponent a few easy points. As a result, the rallies in the first set were typically on the shorter side with very few prolonged exchanges from the baseline. However, Berrettini became more disciplined in his approach as the set progressed and managed to win it via a lengthy tiebreak that lasted 24 points.
#2 Auger-Aliassime kept targeting Berrettini’s backhand:
Unsurprisingly, Auger-Aliassime targeted Berrettini’s backhand from the very beginning and the 26-year-old Italian usually responded with backhand slices. However, his slices lacked bite in the slow conditions and that gave Auger-Aliassime enough time to hit some powerful inside-out forehands. That pattern continued well into the second set with Auger-Aliassime also Berrettini’s backhand with his serve. However, the Italian started hitting his slices flatter and faster to rush the Canadian. That tactic worked to an extent as Auger-Aliassime could no longer hit his inside-out forehands with the same venom.
#3 Berrettini’s strong forehands won the match for him in the end:
Auger-Aliassime got the only break of the match in the third game of the second set and then went on to hold his serve for the reminder of it. He raised his level in the second set noticeably, committing fewer errors and hitting a few wonderful passes as the Italian approached the net. However, Berrettini showed more attacking instinct in the match tie-break that followed the second set. He deployed his own forehand to powerful effect, hitting some inside-out forehands which breached the 100 mph mark. He raced to a 7-2 lead in the match tiebreak, but Auger-Aliassime reduced the deficit to 7-9.
However, the Canadian committed yet another unforced error off his forehand to hand Berrettini a hard-fought win. Berrettini’s powerful serve won him a few easy points as the Italian fired nine aces in the match. However, it was Auger-Aliassime who actually won more points (82 against 79), but ended up losing the match.
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