Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini will battle for a spot in the final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters and for a stranglehold on a Nitto ATP Finals berth when they meet for the third time in their careers on Saturday.
Each of their two previous meetings has come at the Rome Masters, where Zverev prevailed 7-5, 6-2 last season before Berrettini treated the Italian crowd to a 7-5, 7-5 upset this spring.
Zverev captured the year-end championship title in 2018 but for much of this season it looked like he would not even get a chance to defend it. However, the sixth-ranked German is heating up at just the right time–possibly inspired by recent Laver Cup heroics (he clinched victory for Team Europe by winning the deciding match against Milos Raonic). Zverev reached the Beijing semifinals last week (lost to fellow Shanghai semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas) and so far this week he has defeated Jeremy Chardy, Andrey Rublev, and Roger Federer.
Berrettini is in the midst of a breakthrough 2019 campaign that has been eye-popping pretty much from start to finish. The world No. 13 reached two clay-court finals (one title), went 11-2 on grass with another title, and made a run to the U.S. Open semifinals. His trek through the Shanghai draw has included wins over Jan-Lennard Struff, Christian Garin, fellow London hopeful Roberto Bautista Agut, and world No. 5 Dominic Thiem.
Although Zverev is one year younger at 22, he has far more experience at this stage of Masters 1000 tournaments. In fact, he has already secured three such titles this early in his career. Moreover, the turnaround in Zverev’s recent serving has been incredible on this Asian swing and he fired 17 aces past Federer on Friday while double-faulting only once.
Pick: Zverev in 3
[polldaddy poll=10430645]
who ya got?
Zverev in 3
Should be a great match…Btini in 3.
ouch!
Zverev in three
Huge improvement by Sasha , even Fed wasn’t at his best,he really took it to him