Matteo Berrettini - "Roger Federer was my youth idol"
Matteo Berrettini played the best season of his career last year. One of the highlights: the meeting with Roger Federer in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: May 22, 2020, 10:45 am
The year 2020, which was already short for all tennis professionals, can even be reduced to just two matches for Matteo Berrettini: a compulsory win against local hero Andrew Harris at the Australian Open, followed by a five-set loss against Tennys Sandgren there. Before and after, the Italian high-flyer of the previous season was forced to take a break due to injury, but the Italian is still in eighth place in the ATP world rankings.
Berrettini also won the tournament victories in Budapest (on ashes) and Stuttgart. The latter, in particular, was extremely impressive on grass - the 23-year-old did not have to give up his serve once during the entire MercedesCup 2019. Best references also with regard to Wimbledon - and actually a cause for concern for Roger Federer, who had to deal with Matteo Berrettini in the fourth round. However, he had to fight with his nerves at least as much as with his opponent.
No chance at Wimbledon against Federer
"It was always a dream for me to play against him," Berrettini told Gazzetta dello Sport a few days ago. "I'm very happy that I did it. Federer was my idol when I was growing up. It was wonderful emotion because it was my first time playing on Wimbledon's Center Court. I was very excited and didn't play my best tennis. ”In fact, Federer had no problems with Berrettini at 6: 1, 6: 2, 6: 2.
The second meeting with the "Maestro" was a bit more balanced: At his first appearance at the ATP Finals in London, Berrettini kept up well in the first set, but lost the group game 6: 7 (2) and 3: 6.