The Italy of tennis ends a 2022 full of satisfactions with success, with the blue team beating Brazil 3-2 in the first match of Group E of the United Cup , the new mixed team tournament underway in Brisbane, Australia. prologue of the down under tournaments that will lead to the Melbourne Open.

After a 1-1 draw on the first day, in today's three matches Matteo Berrettini prevailed in two sets over Thiago Monteiro (6-4, 7-6); then Lucia Bronzetti gave the definitive point by beating Laura Pigossi 6-0, 6-2. In the mixed doubles, the Rosatello-Berrettini couple lost in three sets to Stefani/Matos, with the score of 6-4, 6-7, 10-4.

After the New Year's Eve celebrations, the Azzurri will be on the field on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd January against Norway. In the first singles, Berrettini found success after more than two months, but not without effort, thanks above all to an excellent serve: he won 88% of the points with his first serve, he didn't even concede a break point and dictated the rhythm of the exchange with the right whenever he could. The first set was decided by a break in the tenth game on the only two chances given by Monteiro in the whole match. Second fraction still balanced decided by an exciting tie-break where the blue annulled two set-points before managing to close by 9 points to 7 in the second match-point.

«I'm quite satisfied I must say - commented the Roman -. It had been a long time since the last singles, I didn't know what to expect but I think the level was quite high. I'm happy with my performance, but obviously when you play in this type of competition the most important thing is to get the win. It's a matter of the heart, especially when you play for Italy. When you see your teammates on the bench you have to give something extra and that's what I tried to do. It's always difficult matches against Thiago: he's a really tough tennis player. But I think I played better in the important moments and that's why I won».

Lucia Bronzetti in the second singles won the decisive point against Pigossi. Fresh from her best ranking (n.54 WTA), the blue started strong, giving her opponent a 6-0 thanks to an excellent percentage of first balls (82%). The 28-year-old from San Paolo managed to win her first game, moreover on Bronzetti's serve, only at 4-0 and also got the chance to make it 4-3, but the Romagna girl immediately got back on track, closing 6 -2 and giving the victory to Italy.

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