Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live coverage of today’s Stuttgart Open final between Andy Murray and Matteo Berrettini.
Murray will play his first singles final on grass since winning Wimbledon in 2016 when he faces second-seeded Italian Berrettini in today’s final.
Murray surprised Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals on Friday, Murray’s first win in six years against a top-ranked rival.
It is the second final of 2022 for Murray, who lost to Aslan Karatsev in the Sydney Tennis Classic hard court in January, and the first time he has reached two finals in the same season since 2017. Murray, who has struggled to recover. if. The best after hip surgery, he last won an individual touring title at the 2019 European Open in Belgium and has a 46-23 record in the final.
Berrettini won 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5) over Oscar Otte in a tight match with no service breaks. Berrettini saved a seven-point lead in the first set tie and needed three game points to close out the victory.
Murray and Berrettini each won one of their two race meetings, with Berrettini the winner in his only grass match at Queen’s Club last year.
Murray overcame his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios yesterday, but the Australian said he suffered racist abuse by the crowd during the defeat.
The Australian posted on Instagram after the 7-6 (5), 6-2 defeat to Murray who had heard abusive comments from the stands.
“When will this stop? Dealing with the racial insults of the crowd?” wrote on Instagram. “I understand that my behavior is not the best all the time, but ‘black sheep’, shut up and play ‘, small comments like this are not acceptable. When I retaliate with the crowd, they punish me. That’s wrong.”
Kyrgios received a points penalty for breaking his racket at the end of the first set tiebreaker, and then a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct in the second set after he approached the crowd and seemed to ask, “What did you say?” Kyrgios then sat down and did not continue the match until he spoke to the tournament supervisor.