 "Matteo Berrettini will return to top-100 in ATP Rankings after winning the title in Morocco. Image: X/ATP Tour")
Matteo Berrettini won the ATP 250 tournament in Marrakesh on Sunday, beating Spaniard and defending champion Roberto Carballes Baena 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
The 27-year-old Italian former world number six was playing in his first final since the one he lost in Naples in October 2022.
He has slipped to 135th in the world after a series of physical problems and returned from injury less than a month ago.
The Wimbledon 2021 finalist was very solid defensively and on serve, and did not have to exert himself to deny 31-year-old Carballes a second consecutive title on Moroccan clay.
Berrettini’s eighth tour title will lift him back into the ATP top 100 as of Monday.
Shelton beats Tiafoe to win US Clay Court title
Ben Shelton defeated 2023 champion Frances Tiafoe in three sets to clinch the ATP US Clay Court Championship in Houston on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Shelton triumphed 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the all-American final to become the youngest winner at the tournament since 19-year-old Andy Roddick in 2002.
The title is the second of Shelton’s career and his first on clay – the left-hander had arrived at Houston with a 2-7 record on clay in ATP events.
Shelton’s serve was the key to his win – he hit 11 aces and won 83% of his first serve point.
He took the first set with a break in the 12th game but Tiafoe struck back, breaking to go 2-1 up in the second and confidently forcing a deciding set.
But Shelton, who had won the only previous meeting the pair in the US Open quarter-finals last year, never looked in danger in the third.
Shelton’s first win on the ATP tour came in October, on hard court, at the Japan Open.
Hurkacz collects Estoril ATP title
Hubert Hurkacz won the ATP 250 tournament in Estoril in Portugal on Sunday, beating Pedro Martinez 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
The Pole, ranked tenth in the world and seeded second in the Portuguese event, beat the 77th-ranked Spaniard, in one hour 26 minutes for a first clay-court tournament title.
Martinez had knocked out the title-holder and world number 8 Casper Ruud in the semi-finals.
Hurkacz heads to the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, which began on Sunday and where he will face 39th-ranked Briton Jack Draper in the first round.
Martinez, who was hoping to win a second title after his victory in 2022 at the Chile Open, is set to jump 17 places to 60th in the world rankings.