MELBOURNE: World No 7 Matteo Berrettini defeated Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 7-6(4,) 6-4 today to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time.
Berrettini, coming off a marathon five-set win over Carlos Alcaraz, broke Carreno Busta in the 11th game of the opening set after two successive net cords went his way at Rod Laver Arena.
The Italian saved a break point in the next game before firing some big serves to wrap up the first set. Berrettini dominated on his serve in the second set and won the tiebreaker with the help of three aces.
Carreno Busta showedfight in the contest but could not match Berrettini, who won 87% of points on his first serve and wrapped up the match in two hours and 22 minutes.
Berrettini will face Gael Monfils in the last eight after the Frenchman defeated Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic.