Italian berrettini

Qatar Open ATP: Matteo Berrettini of Italy caused a huge upset in the Qatar Open 2025, beating former World No.1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets in a first-round match at the ATP 500 series event being played on the hard courts here on Tuesday. This is Berrettini's first top-10 win since 2023.

Berrettini, who is currently ranked 35th in the ATP Rankings and had a career-high rank of 6 in January 2022, survived a few anxious moments, including a couple of break points in the sixth game of the first set, before winning the match 7-6(4), 6-2 in one hour and 33 minutes. While Berrettini is unseeded here, Djokovic is the third seed and was expected to go all the way after retiring from his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev with a hamstring injury last month. However, the Italian had other ideas as he served a potent display of power tennis to upset the 24-time Grand Slam winner.

In the second set, 28-year-old Berrettini broke Djokovic's serve in the second game and then again in the marathon eighth game in which he saved a game point after deuce and then defeated the 37-year-old Serb on the second advantage. Berrettini won 85 per cent (40/47) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to a dazzling 95-minute victory, which was his first in their ATP head-to-head series (1-4).