Berrettini, so he became number 1 on the grass

If there were rankings by surface, or by specialty as happens in skiing, Matteo Berrettini would be by far the number 1 in the world on grass, as well as the strongest Italian of every era on green. The roadmap of the blue, in the post-pandemic era, is impressive: four tournaments played, three wins and one final lost. All for a total of 20 games won and one lost.

Roger’s lesson

–

“Federer gave me a lesson, I will need it for the future”, said Matteo on July 8, 2019 when the very Swiss champion had shot him on the Center Court in an eighth final of just one hour and 14 minutes finished 6-1 6-2 6-2 for the 37-year-old from Basel. That day Berrettini learned a lot. He patiently waited for the end of the pandemic and the return of the weed. At Queen’s in 2021 he immediately scored, becoming the first Italian to conquer the London tournament 23 years after the final in Tieleman, who in 1998 lost the big match against the Australian Philippoussis. At Queen’s 2021 Berrettini overtook Travaglia in the first round, Murray in the second round, Evans in the quarterfinals, De Minaur in the semifinals (all in two sets) and Norrie in the final for 6-4 6-7 6-3. Then at Wimbledon he reached a historic and unexpected final: facilitated by a not impossible scoreboard, Matteo overtook Auger Aliassime (n.19 in the world) in the quarterfinals and Hurkacz (n ° .18) in the semifinals in four sets before undergoing Djokovic’s law. . Even today, the final played at the Championships remains Berrettini’s last defeat on the grass.

Back

–

In the last two weeks, after almost three months of absence for the operation in hand, Matteo repeated the title in Stuttgart 2019 (beating Albot in the first round, Sonego in the quarterfinals, Otte in the semifinals and Murray in the final) and at Queen’s 2021 (Evans, Kudla, Paul, Van de Zandschulp in semi and Krajinovic in the final) becoming the eighth player of the Open Era to win at least twice the noblest warm-up ahead of Wimbledon. His name is now on display alongside McEnroe, Connors, Becker, Lendl, Hewitt, Roddick and Murray. In the last 13 months, Berrettini has totaled 2450 ATP points on the grass: 1200 for Wimbledon, 500 each for the two titles at Queen’s and 250 for Stuttgart. Berrettini precedes Medvedev (14-4), Auger-Aliassime (14-5), Querrey (13-9), Cilic (12-2), Hurkacz (10-4) and De Minaur by number of victories on grass after the pandemic (10-5).

The Novak obstacle

–

On paper, the only opponent who can make Berrettini tremble is the former world number 1 Djokovic. The Serbian hasn’t lost on grass since the 2018 Queen’s final when he wasted a match point before surrendering to Cilic for 5-7 7-6 6-3. Since then he has played Wimbledon three times, obtaining as many centers: in 2018 in the final against Anderson, in 2019 against Federer and in 2021 against Berrettini: total of 21 games played and 21 victories.

the victories obtained by Italy in the Open Era in the main Grand Prix, Wct and Atp Tour circuits. The first ever was the success of Panatta on 8 August 1971 in the Senigallia tournament in the final over Mulligan.

the victories obtained by the Italian tennis players on grass: on June 19, 2011 Seppi won the Eastbourne tournament overcoming Tipsarevic in the final who retired on 7-6 3-6 5-3 for the South Tyrolean. The second title dates back to June 16, 2019 when Berrettini won his first title in Stuttgart beating Auger-Aliassime 6-4 7-6. The third on June 29, 2019 when Sonego won the Antalya tournament by beating Kecmanovic 6-7 7-6 6-1 in the final. The fourth, fifth and sixth titles still bear the signature of Berrettini who won Queen’s 2021, Stuttgart 2022 and Queen’s 2022.

the ATP titles won by Berrettini: the Roman champion won Gstaad in 2018, Budapest and Stuttgart in 2019, Belgrade and the Queen’s in 2021, Stuttgart and the Queen’s in 2022. Better than him, at an Italian level, only Panatta with 10 titles and Fognini with 9.

today’s ATP ranking by Berrettini. Despite his victory at Queen’s Matteo is out of the top 10 for the first time. He had entered the top 10 on October 28, 2019 and since then he has not been out collecting (without considering the 22 weeks of frozen rankings due to pandemic) for 116 consecutive weeks in the top 10. The 116-week straight streak is the 55th longest in history. In the lead there is always Nadal with 873 straight weeks spent in the top 10.

the weeks of reign that remain in Berrettini on a national level. The ATP’s decision not to award points for the 2022 edition of Wimbledon will cost Berrettini the top position at national level in the ATP ranking. On Monday 11 July Sinner will be the first Italian in the world ranking. In fact, Berrettini will get 1200 points for the final of Wimbledon 2021 and the Roman champion will slide to at least fifteenth position in the world.