Matteo Berrettini has become one of the fashionable tennis players in recent months on the ATP circuit. The Italian tennis player, brand new semifinalist of the Australian Open against Rafa Nadal , has enough results to consider him an alternative to the Top-5, a place that he will step on sooner rather than later and from which, thanks to his marked qualities, he threatens not to leave. However, in addition to a devastating serve and a forehand worthy of a great, Berrettini has stood out with another characteristic, that of an ‘anti-Spanish’ tennis player, which acquires special importance due to his duel with Rafa.
The Navy arrived at the Australian Open with an unknown, that of Nadal ‘s physical condition and filming, which had already been cleared based on games won, and several alternatives that threatened, if the conditions were right, to surprise and go far at the tournament. Due to the capriciousness of the draw and the deportation of Novak Djokovic with this one already drawn, Pablo Carreño and Carlos Alcaraz took over that hole from which they could extract oil in the form of a –new– great result in Grand Slam.
However, in both cases Berrettini appeared to put a stop to his chances and be the one to advance to the semifinals that would have been a huge result for any of the two Spanish tennis players who train at Equelite . In the third round and in one of the best matches seen in 2022, Alcaraz pushed Berrettini to the limit in a match in which the Italian won the first two sets but the world tennis sensation would respond with the next two to force the fifth sleeve.
In a display of talent and resilience, Berrettini , with a sprained ankle, showed that his mentality is at the top of that of new talents – along with Medvedev’s – and shook off the discomfort caused by Alcaraz ‘s tennis to push him away of the tournament in a supertie-break in which he did not hesitate in the slightest, adding his first Spanish victim in the Open.
After this round, they awaited the round of 16, where Pablo Carreño would be a stumbling block to take into account, due to his regularity in the Grand Slams. Again a Spaniard and again a tight match, which Berrettini on this occasion was able to solve in two sets with three tight finals in which his serve made the difference –28 aces–, a weapon of mass destruction on fast courts like Melbourne Park. . The final 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 pitched Matteo against the best eight of the tournament, where he was also going to know how to get rid of the reborn Monfils .
Nadal can avenge his compatriots
Caprices of fate, for Berrettini to equal his best result in a Grand Slam –finalist at Wimbledon 2021– he will have to defeat a third Spaniard, a Rafael Nadal who is not in the business of letting the Italian complete his particular triplet in the Open from Australia. To do this, Rafa knows the tactic, which may be the same as he sought against Shapovalov –playing excessively against the rival– and from there, show off his experience and the moral advantage that his clear victory may give him –in the US Open 2019 – in the only precedent between the two.
