LIKE A blast from the past, Italian Matteo Berrettini‘s brutal forehand was back to its breathtaking best against a returning Novak Djokovic as the former Top 10 player smashed his way into the Doha second round. While Djokovic was returning from an injury he sustained during his semi-final loss to Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open, the Serbian admitted pre-tournament that he was “almost 100 per cent”.

“There’s no longer any muscle tear,” Djokovic said in an interview with Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti. “The injury is almost 100 per cent healed and I’m ready to go for more victories. “I have the green light from the medical team to train, to prepare.”

While Djokovic was able to match it with the current world number 35, the Serbian faded in the second set as Berrettini took control. Having made the road to recovery himself over the last 18 months, Berrettini went from regularly featuring on the ITF Tour to back at ATP Tour level and inside the Top 40.

Berrettini won the first three games of the second set, and while Djokovic looked to be getting back into it late, was broken a second time in the eighth game to lose the set 6-2, and the match 7-6 6-2 in 95 minutes.

The powerful Italian hit 10 more winners (32-22) and 10 more unforced errors (28-18), with 18 of Berrettini’s winners coming off his forehand side. Neither player came to the net often, with the match a battle of attrition from the baseline. But having had the extra match fitness and practice compared to the former number one, Berrettini was able to secure his first Top 10 victory in two years.

Berrettini’s victory marked the first time he had beaten Djokovic in five meetings.

“It’s something that I’ve been looking to do,” Berrettini said post-match. “I played against him in the most important tournaments on Tour, had the honour and the pleasure to play against him. “I wish I could have won one of those matches as well.

“I worked really hard to be back here, to be back at this level. I knew my level was high. I just needed matches and matches like this. “All the hard work that I’ve been putting in the last months, in the last days, it worked pretty well today. “So I’m really happy with my performance. I’m really happy because I enjoyed my time out there, which is the most important thing.”

Berrettini advanced through to the Round of 16 where he will take on tricky Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, the same player who beat him just two weeks ago in Rotterdam in a tough 6-3 6-7 7-6 result. On that day, Griekspoor spoke to reporters in his home nation about last year’s Davis Cup where he came up against Italy in the final but had to play world number one Jannik Sinner instead of Berrettini.

“I would have loved to play Matteo in Davis Cup. I’m always ****ed by playing Sinner or Alcaraz, but that’s what you gotta do when you’re number one.”

Just two weeks after making that statement, Griekspoor will have the opportunity to play Berrettini again, this time on the Doha hard courts. The winner of that second round match will advance to the quarter finals where a likely clash with eighth seeded Brit Jack Draper awaits.

Among the notable results, in-form Serbian Hamad Medjedovic continued his rich vein of success with a hard-fought three-set win over the out-of-sorts Stefanos Tsitsipas, 7-6 5-7 7-6. Top seeds Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev all advanced to the Round of 16, as did qualifiers, Botic Van de Zandschulp and Luca Nardi. Belgian Zizou Bergs and Portuguese talent Nuno Borges were the other victors.

2025 QATAR OPEN ATP500 – ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[2] Alex de Minaur (AUS) defeated Roman Safiullin (RUS) 6-1 7-5
Matteo Berrettini (ITA) defeated [3] Novak Djokovic (SRB) 7-6 6-2
[4] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated Karen Khachanov (RUS) 4-6 7-5 6-3
[5] Andrey Rublev (RUS) defeated Alexander Bublik (KAZ) 6-3 6-4
Hamad Medjedovic (SRB) defeated [6] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 7-6 5-7 7-6
Tallon Griekspoor (NED) defeated Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 7-6 7-6
Zizou Bergs (BEL) defeated Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) 6-4 7-6
[Q] Botic van de Zandschulp (NED) defeated [WC] Abdullah Shelbayh (JOR) 7-5 6-3
Nuno Borges (POR) defeated [LL] Otto Virtanen (FIN) 7-6 6-3
[Q] Luca Nardi (ITA) defeated Zhizhen Zhang (CHN) 6-4 6-3