New York. The French Open runner-up beat Berrettini on clay in July's Gstaad final and looked just as effective on the hard court, hanging back behind the baseline to absorb the 13th seed's power.
Sprinting through a sublime first set in which he produced just two unforced errors, it looked like Ruud was on track for a blowout victory when he was up 5-1 in the second set. "Everything sort of went in my favour.
I was hitting all the spots, all the shots that I needed to. Matteo was maybe not showing the level he typically does," said Ruud.
But Berrettini, who was sidelined a number of times this season due to injury or illness, slowly began to find his usual level and appeared to have cracked the code in the third set when he broke Ruud in the second game and saved four breaks in the third.