Italy’s Matteo Berrettini returns the ball to Denis Kudla of the US during their men’s single tennis match round of 8 on day 4 of the ATP Championships tournament at Queen’s Club in west London on Thursday. LONDON: Reigning Queen’s champion Matteo Berrettini needed three sets to see off Denis Kudla as he reached the quarter-finals of the grass-court tournament on Thursday. Berrettini won 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 but the victory was anything but straightforward for the 26-year-old. The Italian fell behind as his American opponent took a tight first set before Berrettini, beaten in last year’s Wimbledon singles final by Novak Djokovic, edged a second set tie-breaker. Berrettini then broke serve in the ninth game of the deciding set before he served out for the match after a draining two hours and 47 minutes on a sun-drenched centre court at Queen’s, in south-west London. World No 10 Berrettini will now play Tommy Paul in the semi-finals after the American’s emphatic 6-1, 6-4 defeat of three-time Grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka. The 37-year-old Wawrinka missed most of 2021 with a foot injury that required two surgeries and the Swiss player, now a lowly 290 in the world rankings, is trying to work his way back to form. Berrettini’s success means there are at least two seeds still involved in the Wimbledon warm-up event following Marin Cilic’s win on Wednesday. Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie, Taylor Fritz, Diego Schwartzman, Denis Shapovalov and Reilly Opelka were all defeated prior to the quarter-finals.