Tennis: Berrettini restarts from the Challengers to go back up and relies on… history

Starting from the bottom to be reborn. There is nothing to be ashamed of, there is only to be appreciated. Matteo Berrettini has decided to do this, playing a Challenger after almost four years, a step below the stages to which he is accustomed and has accustomed us. The Roman announced via Instagram that he will participate in the tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, a classic tournament played between the two Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami.

“As I always have, I trust my work and the ability to stay focused. The season is long and I’ll be back to my best soon,” wrote Berrettini. “My team and I have decided to play in Phoenix next week, thanks to the organizers who granted me a wild card”. Matteo thus returns to a place, among other things, that he knows very well: it was 2019 when, as number 50 in the world or so, Berrettini won this very tournament, beating Mikhail Kukushkin in the final. A few months after the explosion, the semifinal at the US Open and the top 10, never let go for years.

RECIPE

—

Here, to get back up there, perhaps Matteo really needs this: to get dirty, to fight in fields that he seemed to have forgotten, to put matches and petrol in the tank for his legs and spirit. The elimination in Indian Wells at the hands of Taro Daniel and more generally the few games played in 2023, with performances that were not exciting most of the time, convinced Berrettini to take a step back. Many, many champions did it before him. Andre Agassi comes to mind in total confusion in 1997, when he too restarted playing Challengers (they said it was as if Bruce Springsteen was playing in a bar) or Roger Federer who in 2013, after the elimination of Wimbledon and with the bad back he found himself in the middle of summer playing (and losing) in the dusty clay courts of Gstaad, which is not a Challenger but certainly not a very usual tournament for someone like the former world number one. Illustrious precedents, very illustrious, and they all worked. Great.