The 2022 Queen's Club Championships: Matteo Berrettini beats Filip Krajinovic to retain title
Second seed Matteo Berrettini defeated Filip Krajinovic to win the Queen's title for the second year in a row
Matteo Berrettini celebrates winning the final of the cinch Championships alongside runner up Filip Krajinovic (left) at The Queen's Club, LondonThe Italian used his strong serving prowess to best the Serb 7-5, 6-4. Matteo Berrettini now has a record of 20 wins from his past 21 grass-court matches. Last year, his only defeat was against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon summit clash. He now has won two consecutive titles, winning the Stuttgart Open last week after beating Andy Murray.
Matteo Berrettini said, "There are too many emotions - I want to cry," the 26-year-old. "I forgot how heavy the trophy was." The Italian hadn't expected to return from surgery and win two titles in a row. He will be one of the favourites for Wimbledon this year after it kickstarts on June 27.
Meanwhile, Filip Krajinovic lost all the five finals he appeared in, although he would leave Queen's Club with some satisfaction, having failed to win a main draw ATP match on grass before this week. He said, I hated to play on grass before this tournament, but this can change." Surprisingly, he now wants to play more and see how it goes, as the Serb compared the experience to playing at home.
Matteo Berrettini dominated with his powerful serve
During his match against the second seed, Berrettini started well and created four early break points before scoring the fifth with a backhand volley. Krajinovic then struck with a volley as well to retrieve the break. They were neck to neck in terms of score, but Berrettini won 79% of points behind his first serve throughout the match, owing to his strong serve. Krajinovic's netted backhand handed Berrettini the break for 6-5, and the Italian scored a big forehand winner into the corner of the court to win the set.
The Italian broke to love for a 3-2 lead in the second set and then served for the match at 5-4. He was 15-30 down but managed to reel off the following two points to win the game.
Meanwhile, Britain's Lloyd Glasspool and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara lost the men's doubles final 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 10-6 to Serbian pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. Elsewhere, Alfie Hewett and Stephane Houdet thrashed Briton Andrew Penney and Belgium's Joachim Gerard 6-2 6-2 to win the wheelchair doubles title.