from injuries to anxiety to (too much) media exposure – Corriere.it

Matthew Berrettini he’s lost again, and it’s happening too often. The Roman’s first Masters 1000 of the year lasted two hours and 41 minutes: Berrettini, in Indian Wells, had recovered a set from a deficit with a dry 6-0, but was defeated in the third (6-3) by the Japanese Taro Daniel, number 103 in the world. There is one number that worries more than the others: that of gratuitous forehand errors, one of the shots that accompanied him over time up to sixth position in the ranking. Thirty, really too many, out of the total 50 unforced, also a huge amount. There is only one consolation, e Matteo revealed it directly: I didn’t lose due to physical problems. obvious that when you get hurt the preparation is not optimal, but the reasons for the defeat are not those. The weather conditions and, in particular, the humidity did not help him either: Berrettini underlines them but does not make an alibi of them. After the first three games, the balls had already disintegrated and for my characteristics not the best. I was having a hard time playing and pushing, but I thought it could go better in the third set.

The 2023 season had started in the best way, with the final reached at the United Cup, even if the foot injury he had sustained in Naples still took him with him, so much so that he presented him with the bill after the defeat with Andy Murray at the Australian Open, which arrived before another month without playing and before another problem, this time in the right leg, accused in Acapulco, which forced him to retire against Rune. Not the first, and it probably won’t be the last either – admits Berrettini -, considering how much I push my body. Surely stopping all the time isn’t good for tennis and it’s not good for the head, for a boy who will turn 27 in a month and one day, who has already become one of the icons – even commercial ones – of Italian sport and has been a regular stop for a few weeks in the gossip magazines for his relationship with Melissa Satta.

All elements that theoretically should have made him serene and smiling, but the words spoken after the knockout against Daniel seem to come from the fifth floor underground. I don’t have to get caught up in anguish and haste. One of my best seasons, 2019, started just like that. My team trusts me: now we’ll go to Miami where the goal will be to win a game since it’s never happened to me there and, in general, get as many games in the legs as possible. Then comes the earth, then the grass. Time is there: with difficult moments, unfortunately or fortunately, my career has already been full.

A year ago, Indian Wells was the last tournament played by Berrettini before stopping and deciding di operate on the hand. An intervention that made him miss the whole clay court season (including the Internationals of the Foro Italico and Roland Garros) and which, upon his return, gave him two wins in a row on grass between Stuttgart and Queen’s. This is the reason why in this period Berrettini will have no points to defend, but points to earn. The alarm, however, rings loudly. We have gone from bells to alarm sirens. True Matteo?, he writes on Twitter Paolo Bertolucci. A cryptic tweet, which could be ironic and referring to Berrettini’s detractors or more realistic. Certainly, in replying to the many comments, Bertolucci says a sacrosanct truth: He can and must do everything to give an important signal to his career.

We have gone from bells to alarm sirens. True @MattBerrettini ?

— paolo bertolucci (@paolobertolucci) March 11, 2023