The grass-court season on the ATP calendar is now fully underway as players are preparing for Wimbledon on June 28. This past weekend, there were two ATP 500 events, and they were won by Matteo Berrettini of Italy and Ugo Humbert of France.
Berrettini won the Queen’s Club Championship in London, England, by beating Cameron Norrie of Great Britain in the final, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. A major reason Berrettini was victorious came down to his serve. The Italian had 18 aces, compared to Norrie’s four.
Berrettini, who was the first seed, became the very first Italian to ever win the Queen’s Club Championship. The event first took place in 1890 after nine years at the London Athletic Club.
This was the biggest win of Berrettini’s career, as his other four ATP titles came at the 250 level. He previously won the 2018 Swiss Open, the 2019 Hungarian Open, and Stuttgart Open, and the 2021 Serbia Open. Earlier this year in Belgrade, Berrettini defeated Russian rising star Aslan Karatsev, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 in the final.
Meanwhile, at the Halle Open in Germany on Sunday, Humbert upset the fourth seed, Andrey Rublev of Russia, 6-3, 7-6 in the final. Humbert, who began the tournament unseeded, also upset Alexander Zverev of Germany, the third seed, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 in the second round.
Humbert also became the first Frenchman to ever win at Halle. This was Humbert’s third career ATP title, and first in the 500-point series, as his first two wins were at the 250-point level. Humbert previously won the 2020 Auckland Open over Benoit Paire in an all-French final, and then the 2020 European Open in Belgium over Alex de Minaur of Australia.
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