Matteo Berrettini makes a surprising gesture after his victory in Shanghai

Matteo Berrettini has struggled with many injuries over the past two years, which has prevented him from playing as much as he would have liked. The abdominal muscles have tormented the Italian top man several times and forced him to several retreats, not to mention the COVID-19 that prevented him from participating in the 2022 edition of the Wimbledon Championships (in which he was considered the second favorite behind the Serbian legend Novak Djokovic after reaching the final the year before).

The champion from Rome has achieved excellent results over the past five years by rewriting the history of Italian tennis before the arrival of Jannik Sinnerwho became number 1 in the world and won two Grand Slam titles this year. Despite the difficulties of recent years, Matteo has never lost hope of becoming competitive at a high level again. To this end, he ended his long association with his historic coach Vincenzo Santopadre rely on an expert coach Francisco Roigwho worked for years with 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.

Although he has had several physical problems this year, Berrettini won three ATP titles in 2024. The Italian champion won in Marrakech in the spring, before triumphing in Gstaad and Kitzbuhel at the beginning of the summer. The 2021 Wimbledon finalist was also close to victory on the grass in Stuttgart, but had to lose to a great Jack Draper in the final.

Matteo has had many injuries

The Italian star had to withdraw Tokyo during the match against the Frenchman Arthur Fils, a shame considering that Matteo won the first set before he felt pain in his stomach muscles. Against expectations, Berrettini immediately flew there Shanghai for the eighth Masters 1000 of the season. The former Top 10 defeated the dangerous Australian Christopher O’Connell in two tiebreaks and will face Holger Rune in the second round. At the end of the match, Matteo wrote a very funny sentence on camera to dispel any negative thoughts.

After his match against O’Connell in Shanghai, the Italian great reflected on his recent difficulties: “Last year was very tough, one of the worst years of my career and also my life. When you can’t do your job and what you love to do, it’s always a struggle. That’s why I appreciate every moment I can spend on the field, performing and giving my best. I know it’s a process. I have done a great job this year to regain my place in the rankings and I feel good, so I hope to finish the season well.” He also added: “It would be good to be in the Top 32 at the end of the year and being a seed in Australia. That’s one of the goals we’ve set for ourselves, but at the same time the most important thing for me is that I’m healthy and I can play, that’s the most important thing.”

The Italian top player has a goal

Berrettini is doing his best to climb the ATP rankings and he knows there is still a long way to go before he returns to the 2021 level. That was the best moment of his career, after almost making it to the top 5 and had played several quarter-finals and semi-finals in the Grand Slam tournaments.

Sinner’s rise was also a boost for all the other Italian players. Matteo – who was the star of the Daviscup in Bologna – is a big fan of Jannik and the two champions faced off in the second round of this year’s Wimbledon Championships and played a wonderful match.

“There are a lot of things I would like to steal from Jannik’s game. But one of them above all is the dedication to work, more precisely its ability to always want to improve. He reached the tennis elite at a young age and never wanted to stop, and when you hear him talk, he always looks to the future, it is a quality that the greats have” – explains Berrettini. This concentration is somehow innate and you work on it a bit, so I try to do the same: keep pushing myself, looking for goals, feeling important stimuli. We are not just talking about rankings or tournaments, but about the pleasure of getting better” – he concluded.

Matteo’s main goal is to achieve good results in the last tournaments of the season and join the seeded players at the 2025 Australian Open. If he maintains his form, the Italian ace has a good chance of being called Filippo Volandri for the Davis Cup final in Malaga in November. Last year Berrettini was unable to play due to his usual injuries.