Toronto Masters: Berrettini wins first hard-court match in more than five months

Italian Matteo Berrettini beat Frenchman Gregoire Barrere 6-4, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Toronto Masters at the Aviva Centre on Monday evening.

The former world No 6 had not won a match on hard courts since early March in Acapulco, courtesy of injury struggles this year. However, against Barrere, Berrettini served brilliantly, powering down 10 aces as he made 79 percent of first serves, winning 85 percent of first serve points.

Level 🆙

Berrettini is finding top form a set to the good 🆚 Barrere@NBOtoronto | #NBO23 pic.twitter.com/j3hCvskYlm

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 7, 2023

To go with his strong serving, the Italian crushed 24 winners and just three unforced errors – something which cannot be said of his opponent, who stuttered his way to 13 winners and 11 unforced errors.

Berrettini, ranked No 38, will face No 7 seed Jannik Sinner next.

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Tennis Majors

Toronto Masters, other first-round matches (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 6,600,000):

• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat J.J. Wolf: 6-0, 6-2
• Jiri Lehecka beat Brandon Nakashima: 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2)
• Lorenzo Musetti (16) beat Yoshihito Nishioka: 6-4, 6-1
• Francisco Cerundolo beat Alexis Galarneau (WC): 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
• Vasek Pospisil vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Alex De Minaur vs. Cameron Norrie
• Gabriel Diallo vs. Daniel Evans
• Ugo Humbert vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Aslan Karatsev
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Andy Murray
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Max Purcell
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Borna Coric
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Sebastian Korda
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Marcos Giron
• Ben Shelton vs. Bernabe Zapata Miralles
• Milos Raonic vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Tommy Paul vs. Diego Schwartzman
• Gael Monfils vs. Christopher Eubanks
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Taro Daniel
• Cristian Garin vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Alexander Bublik vs. Hubert Hurkacz