Italy, the trio of aces is served. Matteo too Berrettini overtook South Korean Kwon Soon-woo in the third round of Roland Garros. A 3-0 without history, were it not for the first set brought to the tie-break (closed 8-6). The ending says 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. Now he will face the winner in the challenge, in progress, between Koepfer and Federer: if the Swiss were to win, the scoreboard would see three Italians against the three phenomena of the scoreboard that have dominated tennis in recent years.
Yes, because there are also the two terrible teenagers in the round of 16 of Roland Garros. Lorenzo Musetti and Jannik Sinner drew applause in Paris, where on Monday they will have to face two sacred monsters of the red earth: the Tuscan will face Novak Djokovic, who by passing the third round for the twelfth time in a row in this tournament has achieved a record streak for the Open era; the South Tyrolean, on the other hand, will have to try to make Rafa Nadal, 13 times King of Paris, abdicate. The New York Times, already on the eve of the third round just ended, called it the “Golden Generation of Italian tennis”.
Waiting for the school leaving certificate, Musetti passed the exam for tennis. He showed strong nerves and showed off some acrobatic shots already viral on social media (one behind his back at the net, the other with his back to the goal net) in the derby with Marco Cecchinato, ten years older, who imposed his own game in the first and third set, but in the last he surrendered to the clarity of the Tuscan born in 2002 (3-6 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-3). «It was a concentrate of emotions that was not easy to manage. I want to enjoy this great victory for a while, then I will think about how to try to beat Djokovic. Above all, I’ll try to have fun, ”said Musetti, who had never played a five-set match before, and is the sixth player since 2000 to reach the round of 16 in his Grand Slam debut. At the end of the tournament he will climb several positions in the world ranking (now he is at number 76), however the arduous confrontation with the Serbian number 1 in the world will end, who so far has conceded only 23 games in 9 sets in the path that led him to the yet another record of his career.
«Playing against Novak and Rafa? Difficult, but these are important tests, which will do us good “it is certain, however, Sinner. Number 19 in the world and 20 years to go. After eliminating the Swede Mikael Ymer in three sets (6-1, 7-5, 6-3) in two hours and twenty-two minutes, he has to contend with Nadal, who defeated him in the quarterfinals last year. The Spaniard has not yet lost a set, although at times he has suffered against British Cameron Norrie (triple 6-3 final) to bring his record at Roland Garros to 103 wins and only 2 knockouts since 2005.