The Tale Of Matteo Berrettini
Injury plays a significant role in the tale of Matteo Berrettini. If you are lucky, you never get injured as an athlete, if. For a tennis player any injury is awful, but I think a hand injury may physically be the worst. Mental injury may be a close second. You have seen brilliant tennis players, who were mentally fragile and just could not perform when it mattered.
Berrettini Knows Wimbledon Well
Matteo Berrettini is a fiery Italian. Like most Italians, he brings his own brand of flare to the game. At twenty-seven-years old, time is not on his side. This was brought home even more clearly when his injured right hand forced him out of the sport last year. In 2021 he made it to the Wimbledon final, losing to Novak Djokovic. My guess is he is ready to get back to the final this year. He will have to do it the hard way as an unseeded player.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Italian Performs Best On Grass
Berrettini turned professional in 2015, which was eight years ago. What has he accomplished in those eight years? He got to a career high ranking of number six in 2022. The Italian owns seven singles titles, four of them on grass. In March 2022, he underwent right hand surgery. Earlier this year he had an abdominal injury, a tear in the internal oblique, that derailed him again. He is making his way back. The Italian made a definitive statement today. In five previous encounters, Berrettini had only managed to defeat [19] Alexander Zverev once. They had never faced each other on grass, and grass is where the Italian has his best results. Today he won 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5).
How Are The Americans Doing?
[25] Madison Keys is still going strong. In 2015, the American made it to the quarterfinals stage at Wimbledon. Since 2015 she has only managed to get back to the fourth round. Today she defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-1. [16] Tommy Paul had a heartbreaker against Jiri Lehecka. Paul fought back to even the match and looked like he had nothing left in the tank for the fifth set. Lehecka won 6-2,7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-7(9), 6-2. Let’s give it up for Christopher Eubanks. He is serving like John Isner. Eubanks won three consecutive tiebreakers today to advance to the fourth round. The American defeated Christopher O’Connell 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2).
Embed from Getty ImagesMore Seeds Fell Today
The seeded players face each other as we progress in the draws. I expected [25] Nicolas Jarry to push [1] Carlos Alcaraz, which he did. The Spaniard won two sets easily, but the second and fourth sets could have gone either way. In the end Alcaraz won 6-3, 6-7(6). 6-3, 7-5. [6] Holger Rune was pushed to five sets against [31] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. This one will sting as the Spaniards was 2:1 sets up. Credit Rune for digging deep to pull out the 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) victory.
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