Fourth seed Holger Rune of Denmark thrashed Matteo Berrettini of Italy 6-0 1-0 in the Mexican Open quarterfinal on Thursday as the latter had to withdraw with a leg injury. Berrettini himself had advanced over Alex Molcan with an identical scoreline in the first round of the tournament.
The 19-year-old Dane will face Alex de Minaur in the semifinal on Friday. We will now take a look at how the match progressed:
How Holger Rune beat Matteo Berrettini in Acapulco
Rune had the upper hand from the very beginning:
Rune dominated from the get-go and his forehand allowed him to dictate the proceedings on most of the occasions. Berrettini’s not-so-strong backhand helped Rune’s cause and the Italian mostly played slices whenever he had to play a shot off his backhand. Rune capitalized on it and ventured forward into the net repeatedly to dispatch volley winners.
The Dane broke Berrettini thrice in the first set and never lost his serve to mark his absolute dominance. It is not often that a top player like Berrettini gets bageled. However, Thursday was one of the rare occasions.
Matteo Berrettini’s movement was stifled, and he had to withdraw in the end:
Berrettini found it a bit difficult to move and often failed to get to the forehands played by Rune. It meant that Rune succeeded in hitting a lot of winners in the first set. Rune’s inside-in forehand won him a couple of points in the first game of the second set, too, as the Dane held the game to love.
A rain delay followed, and Berrettini decided to withdraw because of his injury after the conditions were back to normal. It was a complete mismatch on the day, as Rune won without any trouble and set up a showdown with De Minaur.
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
