Berrettini in the Roland Garros quarterfinals: Juan Manuel Cerundolo defeated

“We’re here!”. It is the fetish phrase that Matteo Berrettini shouts to himself and to the public in the two most delicate moments of the match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, n.56 in the world, Sinner’s unwilling executioner in the second round. Of course there is, the Martello, when he recovers the break in the tenth game of the third set when the gaucho serves to extend the match to a very delicate fourth set; and it is there above all in the tie break of the third set, when he cancels three set points and then closes the game thanks to a forehand into the net from his rival, beating his chest and then bringing his hands downwards in the unmistakable gesture of someone who has also entrusted himself to something more intangible than the game. Berrettini therefore returns to the Roland Garros quarterfinals after five years, when he challenged Djokovic by playing on equal terms, until the mandatory outflow of the public (Covid rules were still in force) broke his rhythm, favoring Djoker’s rise.

the match

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Despite the decidedly different technical characteristics of the protagonists, with the Argentine certainly bringing to mind the mangy ground players of the 80s and 90s, the match is played like a mirror: great attention in the service games and then the search for their respective backhands. In particular, Berretto greatly accentuates the top spin of the forehand towards the right side of the Argentine southpaw, in order to find the angle to then shoot the inside-out forehand, his trademark. With a substantially similar performance at serve (84% of points with the first serve for the blue, 80% for the gaucho who even placed 16 aces against the rival’s 5), the match took place on the few occasions that the two managed to take in response. Matteo makes the most of the break obtained in the second game to win the first set; in the second no one gives up serve, but in the tie-break the Roman is decidedly more proactive and handles long rallies better; in the third the Computadora, the Computer, as Cerundolo is called in his homeland, extends with the break of the fifth game thanks to a couple of free throws from the Martello, an advantage sterilized by the already mentioned counterbreak of the tenth game with a winning drop shot and above all with a great forehand down the line. Until the second tiebreak of the apotheosis. Berrettini, n. 105 ATP, he becomes the player in the quarterfinals with the lowest ranking at Roland Garros since 2007, when Andreev succeeded as number 125. He is in his seventh Slam quarterfinal, the first since the US Open 2022, and is the fourth Italian in the Open Era to reach the quarterfinals in Paris several times, after Adriano Panatta (5), Jannik Sinner (3) and Corrado Barazzutti (2). He also boasts a 12-0 record at tour level against Argentine tennis players since the start of the 2020 season. By the time he reached the round he had already risen to number 47 in the world.