Andy Murray has just missed his first grass title since winning Wimbledon in 2016. The 35-year-old Brit lost the final in Stuttgart against Italian Matteo Berrettini 4:6, 7:5, 3:6.
For Murray it was the 70th final on the ATP tour, he won 46 of them. Berrettini, last year’s Wimbledon finalist, triumphed for the second time after 2019 in Stuttgart. In the semi-finals he prevailed against Cologne’s Oscar Otte (7:6, 7:6).
Berrettini wins and congratulates Murray on a great tournament
For Berrettini (26) it was the comeback tournament, because of a hand injury he had skipped the clay court season. “I couldn’t have imagined that. It feels great,” said Berrettini about his success and also thought of his opponent: “Congratulations to Andy, great tournament.”
Murray, who had to be treated in the meantime, missed the culmination of a strong week at the Stuttgart Weissenhof, in which he beat the top seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and defeated Nick Kyrgios (7:6, 6:2) in a scandalous semifinal would have.
Kyrgios with a freak in the semifinals
The Australian lost his temper on Saturday and received a point and game penalty. Kyrgios ended the game completely listless and later wrote about racist insults by the spectators on Instagram. He knows that his behavior is “not always optimal”, “but comments like ‘you little black sheep’ and ‘shut up and play’ are not acceptable”. The organizers wanted to investigate the incidents.
