Berrettini reappeared with success after a three -month absence

The return to Italian competition Matteo Berrettinitenth player in the world, was accompanied by a busy victory, in three sets, against an opponent from the previous stage, the Romanian Radu Albot (6-2, 4-6 and 6-3) to extend his stay in the grass-court tournament stuttgart which he already won in 2019.

The serve helped the 26-year-old Roma player to victory, who has not dived into a tournament since falling in the round of 16 of Indian Wells Masters 1,000 against the Serbian Myomir Kecmanovic.

Three months have passed since then. This was the time he needed to recover from surgery on his right hand.

Berrettini chose Stuttgart to return to the circuit. The Italian missed the entire season on clay but returned to the lawn scene where he offered better performances. A finalist at Wimbledon last year, the second seed from Stuttgart took nearly two hours to beat Albot.

He was certainly helped by the twenty -one aces he achieved on a day marked by rain that led to the postponement of the clash by Lorenzo Sonego, also from Spain, sixth seed, and German Jan Lennard Struff, who was invited to the tournament.

The rivalry was cut short when Sonego won 7-6 (2) and 3-4. The winner of the match to be completed on Thursday will be Berrettini’s rival in the quarterfinals.

The cancellation of the match between German Oscar Otte and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, seeded fourth, also caused rain. The winner awaits Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi in the third round, who defeated his compatriot Arthur Rinderknech 7-6 (3) and 6-2.

The session was completed with the match won by Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili against Italian Lorenzo Musetti 7-5 and 6-3 and completed the first round. In the second, Australian Nick Kyrgios awaits him.