LONDON (Reuters) – Italian seventh seed Matteo Berrettini continued his winning run on grass with a confident display against Guido Pella of Argentina to roll into the second round of Wimbledon with a 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-0 victory on Wednesday.
One of the many players yet to play their first round due to rain interruptions on the first two days, the 25-year-old Italian arrived at the grasscourt Grand Slam brimming with confidence having won the title at Queen’s.
But his first meeting against the 59th-ranked Pella was considered a tricky one as the Argentine had proved his mettle on grass by reaching the quarter-finals when the major was last held in 2019.
There were not many break points on offer early as the duo served strongly and Berrettini and Pella both converted their lone chances to share the first two sets.
Forehand unforced errors from Pella helped the Italian nose ahead in the third set when he got the break in the 10th game.
Berrettini, seen as a dark horse for the Wimbledon title in the absences of Rafa Nadal and Dominic Thiem and the first-round exit of Stefanos Tsitsipas, moved up a gear in the fourth set.
He won the last eight games and breezed through the set in just 23 minutes.
Berrettini, who served 20 aces and hit 46 winners overall against 21 from Pella, will next meet Dutch lucky loser Botic Van De Zandschulp who ousted French qualifier Gregoire Barrere 6-2 6-7(4) 6-1 7-6(3).
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Ed Osmond)
