His presence in the next round of the tournament will settle it next Thursday against Serbian Novak Djokovic, who tonight will play against Austrian Dominic Thiem, Federer’s executioner.
The Swiss also strengthened his status as number three in the ATP classification with 685 points of advantage over Russian Daniil Medvedev, who this Wednesday will face Spanish Rafael Nadal.
This Tuesday’s meeting was the second between Berrettini and Federer. The first was played in the past Wimbledon. That day, on a packed center court, the transalpine, a nervous wreck, could only beat Federer five games.
Berrettini now has more experience and his O2 debut nerves dissipated after a crash to Djokovic.
For Berrettini it was almost impossible to get worse after the game against the Serbian and this Tuesday he improved, especially with service, his best weapon. In just half an hour, he had already scored the same number of games he did against Federer at Wimbledon, and after saving the only break ball from the first set in the twelfth game, he headed for a tiebreaker.
Then the sobriety of the six-time champion came to light, precisely the playoffs and Wimbledon do not bring good memories.
The Helvetian inflicted a 7-2 on him that made Berrettini bow his head and stop believing in himself.
In the second set, the Roman gave his serve to the first substitution and Federer, who won about 80% of points with the first service, accelerated towards a victory, in one hour and 18 minutes, which allows him to stay afloat at the tournament.
Now his most important obstacle will come to be in the semifinals. The stumble against Thiem has left him without room for maneuver and once Berrettini is overcome, it is Djokovic’s turn.
It will be the 49th meeting between the two, the first since the famous Wimbledon final in which Federer wasted two match points.
In addition, it will be his seventh duel in the ATP Finals, with three victories for Djokovic, two for Federer and the withdrawal of the Swiss in 2014, when he could not appear in the final due to injury. EFE