Matteo Berrettini becomes first player in Open Era to win successive Queen's Club titles in first 2 appearances

Matteo Berrettini won the Queen's Club Championships for the second successive season by defeating Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 on Sunday. The World No. 10 thus became the first player in the Open Era to win titles in his first two appearances at the tournament.

The Italian also became the eighth player to win two titles on the trot at Queen's. The seven players who preceded Berretteni in achieving the feat have all been World No. 1s. They include John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Andy Murray.

Berretteni is the first Italian player in history to win the Queen's Club Championships. The 26-year-old, who was seeded second behind Casper Ruud at this year's tournament, got past Dan Evans, Denis Kudla, and Tommy Paul before running into Botic van de Zandschulp in the semifinals.

A straight-sets win over the Dutch No. 1 set up a final showdown against Filip Krajinovic, who had accounted for 2017 Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic in the semifinals.

Matteo Berrettini has an impressive record on grass

Matteo Berrettini in acion at the 2022 Boss Open in Stuttgart

Matteo Berrettini, who was the runner-up at Wimbledon last year, has an impressive record on grass. A title in Stuttgart in 2019 was achieved without his serve being broken throughout the tournament.

A semi-final appearance at the Halle Open then followed before the Italian reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, losing to Roger Federer.

The Italian also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open earlier this year after getting past Carlos Alcaraz in the third round, but fell to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

After reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Berrettini became the first player born in the 1990s to reach the quarterfinals in all the Grand Slams.

Following his withdrawal from the Miami Open this year, the World No. 10, who underwent hand surgery, made a remarkable comeback by winning the Boss Open in Stuttgart.

The Italian got past Andy Murray in the final after the Brit defeated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals.