Berrettini Honoured As 2019 Most Improved Player Of The Year

Italian Matteo Berrettini has been selected by his peers as the Most Improved Player of the Year in the 2019 ATP Awards. This honour goes to the player who reached a significantly higher ATP Ranking by year’s end and who demonstrated an increasingly improved level of performance through the season.

“So honored to receive the ATP Players Award as Most Improved Player of the Year 2019!” Berrettini shared on Instagram. “? Thank you so much for all your support! #blessed #proud #atpawards
@atptour”

In 2018, Berrettini’s first full year on the ATP Tour, he compiled a 19-19 record, reached a high of No. 52 and won the Gstaad title. In 2019, the 23-year-old finished with 43 match wins, a career-high No. 8 ATP Ranking and two more titles.

Berrettini started making his move in April, when he reached back-to-back clay-court finals at the Hungarian Open (d. Krajinovic) and BMW Open by FWU (l. to Garin). He continued his climb, rising into the Top 20 with a strong grass-court campaign that included the MercedesCup title in Stuttgart, the Grass Court Open Halle semi-finals and Wimbledon Round of 16 (l. to Federer).

A trio of semi-final runs – his first at a Grand Slam (US Open), first at an ATP Masters 1000 (Rolex Shanghai Masters) and at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna – led him into the Top 10. Berrettini clinched the final qualification spot at the Nitto ATP Finals. “Being here wasn’t a goal at the beginning of the year. Also before the US Open, I didn’t expect that. I wasn’t thinking about that,” he said. “I knew that I was playing good in springtime, like [during the] clay season. It’s just crazy that it happened.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas were also nominated for Most Improved Player of the Year.