parallel lives, while Alcaraz returns to number 1 – Corriere.it

From Indian Wells to Phoenix is ​​just 250 milesthe same time zone, yet between Jannik Sinner, semifinalist in California, and Matteo Berrettini, eliminated in the quarterfinals by the rich challenger from Arizona, where he had taken refuge in search of drops of confidence after the technical kappaò with Taro Daniel (n.103 at the time) in Indian Wells, right now it seems light years away.
Sinner is in trust, the growth curve is progressively launching, with the n.5 Fritz (today n.10: everything changes at a dizzying speed…) the South Tyrolean showed sumptuous percentages on serve, a forehand (which is not his natural shot) of unprecedented solidity, a wealth of tennis – overall – which led him to the threshold of the final of the first Master 1000 of the season, the penthouse he had already attended in 2021 (beaten by Hurkacz); the defeat against Alcaraz – who is not only a gifted player, he is an absolute phenomenon: physical, technical, mental – did not reduce Jannik’s ambitions, who in any case was able to create chances (wasted set point, never as serious as the match point not exploited at the US Open last year, a decisive sliding door). “I’m happy and optimistic – he said, in fact -, in my opinion I’ve improved a lot in the last few months and I think I’ve shown it on the pitch”.

Had he beaten Alcaraz, Sinner would have climbed to number 6 in the ranking: it would have been his best ranking so far (it’s not bad, however: at 21 he is n.11, a stone’s throw from his best ranking: n.9 in November 2021) and would have equaled Matteo Berrettini, now n.23, who was n.6 in January 2022, it seems a lifetime ago. And so, while in the game of the parallel lives of these two traveling companions in blue jersey Jannik goes up and Matteo goes down, Berrettini finds himself facing the worst moment of his career with a new love at his side, Melissa Satta, but unarmed of his best weapons : service and forehand, between Melbourne, Indian Wells and Phoenix, evaporated like snow in the sun, so much so that it was enough to eliminate the Roman giant from the challenger in Arizona Mr. Shevchenko, n.132 in the world, Russian under neutral flag, the knife in the wound. “Are you taking me off the field? Take me off the field! I’m unwatchable, unwatchable, unwatchable!” Berrettini yelled to heaven at the height of frustration, a cry for help that was lost in the desert.

In a bad time of crisis in which he is the (easy) target of haters on social media and the protagonist of a thousand uncontrolled rumors, it would be neither fair nor elegant to rage against a tennis player who has obviously lost his way along the way, and who arrives at the Master 1000 in Miami with confidence under the heels. If the idea of ​​finding Alcaraz in the semifinals in Florida excites Sinner, who can’t wait to take his revenge (3-2 for the Spaniard the precedents updated in Indian Wells), the thoughts that whirl in Berrettini’s head waiting for his rival of the second round (has a bye: Galan or McDonald) are inscrutable. The horrible feeling is that, in this phase, Matteo can lose to anyone, especially at the Master 1000 level. Trust must be stitched up fifteen after fifteen, crochet, with a painstaking patience of which we are no longer certain that the blue is endowed with. Vincent Santopadrethe good coach who has followed him since he was 14 years old, appears increasingly marginal in a technical project that no longer has direction nor compass, the guru’s suggestion Paolo Bertolucci (the master writes on the Journal) to find a super coach has fallen on deaf ears: Matteo gropes his way by training (little, too little) and listening (very little) to those who try to give him a hand.

In this context, while waiting for the results of Miami to clear the fog, the rest of the world is not watching. At 19, Carlos Alcaraz regains the top of the ranking left shortly after the US Open due to physical limitations and sails towards the season on clay, shouldering a Spain that, for the first time since April 25, 2005, it sees the totem Rafael Nadal leave the top 10 (n.13). Barely fourteen months older than Alcaraz, Lorenzo Musetti (n.21) lands in Miami looking for his first victory since mid-February: three tournaments away from the first match (Rio, Santiago, Indian Wells). It’s since coach Tartarini’s panic attack in Melbourne that Lorenzo hasn’t been able to put the pieces of his (wonderful) tennis back together. But that’s another story.