«Melissa makes me feel good» but the results are scarce – Corriere.it

If still between Matteo Berrettini and Melissa Satta it’s not the great love of their lives (up to now they’ve been more separated from work than together), it’s certainly not a buggy. “Melissa makes me feel good” Berrettini confided to his closest friends and it is with this new certainty in his heart that he has always needed to feel loved in order to experience inner peace («I think I am able to love strongly, to be intense as in all the things I do. I give a lot, I ask as much. I like to share, build relationships, look for depth” he said in an interview with 7, the Corriere magazine), that the former number 6 in the world left for the travel to Mexico and the United States, lo swing that precedes the European clay and that should have given him certainties that – instead – he did not find.

The hasty retreat in Acapulco, down 6-0 1-0 with the Danish Rune, to prevent the discomfort in his right calf from degenerating but also driven by a clear intolerance: there, in that one-way and embarrassing match, Matteo was not he wanted to stay a second longer. Reassuring medical tests: «Nothing serious, I will use Indian Wells to test how I am» he had announced in those gloomy days with an audio bounced this side of the ocean. The California desert, however, has not reserved good news for the third Italian player in the ranking (today the Roman is n.23 behind Musetti n.21 and Sinner n.13): promoted by a bye as seed n.20, Matteo surrendered in the second round of the first Master 1000 of the season to Taro Daniel, 103rd player in the world rankings. What is worrying, beyond the specific weight of the affordable opponent, is the lack of incisiveness of the service of the pivot of the Nuovo Salario and the foulness of the forehand, i.e. the two specialties of the house.

Just played the last fifteen with Daniel, here are the keyboard lions who couldn’t wait to tweet sentences: Berrettini’s problem is Melissa Satta is the sentence issued by the court of social networks. As if the choice of the person who stands next to the player in a moment of obvious impasse should be submitted to a popular referendum. Not the showgirl, the student or fellow tennis player (as was Ajla Tomljanovic, the Australian engaged to Matteo until the beginning of last year) okay. And if it is out of the question that a certain type of distraction is not very compatible with the life of a super sports professional, Matteo is right to claim the right to fall in love with whoever he likeswithout ever having given up on the ambition to return to the top 10 and in a Grand Slam final, such as at Wimbledon 2021.

It’s worth thinking about, now that Berrettini and Satta are a couple (however, the entertainer’s alibi doesn’t hold up: Jimmy Connors married a bunny from PlayboyPatty McGuire, and closed his career with 109 tournament wins, including 8 Grand Slam titles, still a record), on the because the player’s inner well-being is not (yet) reflected in his performance on the pitch, but on the other hand tennis is the devil’s discipline full of variables. The opponent was in good spirits, the balls were heavy (see the humidity in Acapulco), the day was bad (with Daniel at Indian Wells: Matteo’s number of gratuitous errors, fifty — 50! —, is senseless); only the Immortals have a long-lasting constancy of performance (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer)the others are human beings grappling with the physiological ups and downs of their careers.

Super coach idea

The great sage Paolo Bertolucci from the pages of Journal advise Matteo to support Vincenzo Santopadre with a super coach: the Vagnozzi-Cahill operation gave new life to Jannik Sinner fresh from his divorce from Riccardo Piatti, why shouldn’t the antibiotic of the great ex work for Matteo? And then the meticulous care of a physique that is unbalanced by nature and, therefore, very delicate: at the beginning of the season, Berrettini evaluated the idea of ​​letting Claudio Zimaglia join the team, the physiotherapist who (together with Dalibor Sirola) had worked wonders for the first Sinner, under Piatti’s management (solved, among others, the problem of blisters on his feet). Hypothesis hastily rejected, so much so that Zimaglia then married Djokovic, the champion who jumped at the opportunity: a mistake of Matthew, perhaps, in hindsight.

The mental coach: “It’s serene”

Berrettini will try to get his 2023 back on track in Miami, in the second American Master 1000, the last before the return to clay in Europe. Not to stay still for too long accepted a wild card at challenger Phoenix, Arizona will be the number one seed in the tournament that kicked off today. What else remains to be attempted to restart an engine with a large displacement, but flooded? The movement of affection, first of all, in the most difficult season. Melissa Sattamet at Christmas (the showgirl had presented the ATP Finals gala in Turin and it was from a narrow circle of mutual acquaintances that the contact arose) and introduced to mamma Claudia in the Milanese days of the gossip and her birthday party, 37 years old against 26, but the age difference is nullified by Berrettini’s maturity (“He was already thinking when he was 14” confirms coach Santopadre, who met him as a boy); And Jacopo Berrettinito whom Matteo is very close (he has his date of birth tattooed), finally free from injuries and able to qualify for the first time for the draw of an ATP tournament in Mexico, where he also played doubles with his brother.
“The good news from my point of view — explains Stefano Massari, historic mental coach of Berrettini – is that after Australia Matteo wanted to take time for himself, for his life as a young man. When he thinks a little about himself, I like him. There is a new relationship, which implies a new visibility. Matteo is an upright boy, a faithful man: what interests me is that he is well inside, that he is happy. I trust him: I felt serene. I think the relationship will stabilize him and his well-being will also transfer to the pitch. A good state of mind bodes well for good results».

In the titanic effort to reassemble the ranking, Matteo is in good company. He had gotten used to it, and he had gotten used to it well, Berrettini, top 10 since the end of 2019 thanks to an impressive leap in quality, starter at the ATP Finals in London, finalist at Wimbledon 2021, able to get by in the standings also last year between injuries and Covid positivity. It is mandatory to think positively, to leverage the beautiful emotions of private life to give tennis a new energy. Melissa confirms to the circle of friends: “Matteo gave me back my smile”. When a love is born, it’s never too late.