Deadspin | Matteo Berrettini clips Christopher O’Connell in Shanghai

Italy’s Matteo Berrettini advanced to the second round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Thursday with a hard-fought 7-6 (9), 7-6 (6) victory over Australia’s Christopher O’Connell in China.

Showing no ill effects after last week’s second-round withdrawal in Tokyo due to an abdominal issue, Berrettini struck 11 aces among his 33 winners to win in 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Berrettini fought off two set points in the first-set tie-break and trailed 5-4 in the second-set tie-break, setting up a clash with 12th-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark.

“I’m happy to be back here and healthy. I’ve never played him so didn’t know what to expect,” Berrettini said.

“Mentally it’s been tough,” he continued. “… Too often I have been thinking about how to be healthy and it’s something I’ve grown a bit tired of. I’ve been working hard to be able to think as less as possible about this. It was one of the goals of the match. Not to think about my condition, just to enjoy the match, enjoy the atmosphere, which I did.”

Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic achieved a career milestone with his 6-2, 6-2 first-round win against Rinky Hijikata of Australia. That gave him at least one match victory in all nine ATP Masters 1000 events. It was Kecmanovic’s first hard-court win since Toronto in August 2023.

Chinese wild card Yi Zhou, 19, advanced when Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka retired with a back injury after building a 4-2 lead in the first set. The home favorite will take on No. 13 seed Frances Tiafoe in the second round.

Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki, Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic and Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands each held on for three-set victories. Watanuki overcame Russia’s Pavel Kotov 7-6 (6), 6-4, 7-5, Mensik outlasted Spain’s Pedro Martinez 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 and Griekspoor eliminated Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3.

Straight-sets winners included Belgium’s David Goffin and Zizou Bergs, Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, Spain’s Jaume Munar, Russia’s Roman Safiullin, Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko, Italy’s Mattia Bellucci, France’s Terence Atmane and American Marcos Giron.

Defending champion Hubert Hurkacz of Poland is not competing due to a knee injury.

–Field Level Media