Matteo starts well then also drops physically and gives in to world number 1 3-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 after canceling three match points. For the Spanish he trusts her with Rune
Raise your hand if you didn’t believe it, or at least hoped for it. But happy endings, in sport, almost never exist. Fairy tales are swept away by reality and phenomena, see Carlos Alcaraz, almost always have the upper hand. So it ended up that in the second round of Wimbledon, the youngest ever world number 1 threw a bucket of icy water on Matteo Berrettini and the Italian dreams, winning 3-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 and conquering a place in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time against another 2003, Holger Rune who beat Dimitrov.
DISAPPOINTMENT AND HOPE
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Disappointment? A pinch. Hopes? Many. Because Matteo Berrettini, who until three weeks ago seemed on the brink of the tennis abyss is back. Few would have bet that he would have played the tournament that had seen him write history with the 2021 final. Very few thought he would have passed the first round, even fewer who would have imagined even reaching the second week after beating Sonego, De Minaur and Zverev. And therefore, even if the German had predicted a success of ours against the prodigy from Murcia, and Kyrgios even bet on the blue as anti-Djokovic, the reality is that we must “be content” with rejoicing for the rediscovered cap. In tennis, in the head, in the heart.
the match
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The match started as best one could not have hoped, with the former Italian number 1 able to snatch the serve from the Spaniard in the eighth game and win the first set. But a good day doesn’t always start in the morning and in fact in the second set the Spaniard raised his pace and level, especially in reply, forcing the Roman to save himself from a hail of break points and to exchange on every ball, cutting his legs. In the second set, the break in the 3rd game is enough to close 6-3 and tie the score. In the third instead there are two breaks but the result does not change, still 6-3. Berrettini can’t catch his breath in his innings because even his ground-to-air at 220 km/h come back to the other side. In the fourth set, the Spaniard shows a touch of humanity by making his debut with two double faults and allowing ours to go 0-30 but the illusion lasts a blink of an eye and Alcaraz gets back on track. At 2-2 the roof closes, returns to the field and holds Alcaraz’s service who then snatches the serve for the last time from Berrettini and also closes the fourth set 6-3 after having three match points annulled. No happy ending, but Berrettini’s horizon is now clearer.
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