ROME. Wimbledon grass is white, red and green. Matteo Berrettini got rid of the Belarusian Ivaska in three sets and reached the quarter-finals of the most important tournament in the world: it is the …
ROME. Wimbledon grass is white, red and green. Matteo Berrettini got rid of the Belarusian Ivaska in three sets and reached the quarter-finals of the most important tournament in the world: he is the fifth Italian man to do it, the last to do so, in 1998, was Davide Sanguinetti, who however stopped on the eve of the semifinals, a milestone reached, in the history of his majesty’s grass, only by Pietrangeli. The finish of the quarters was missed by a whisker two years ago by Berrettini who now dreams of reaching where no Italian has ever set foot. On the other hand, Lorenzo Sonego only missed a milestone who bowed to His Majesty Roger Federer after three sets (7-5, 6-4, 6-2).
Berrettini, number 8 in the ranking, continued his triumphal march against the Belarusian Ilya Ivaska, number 79 in the world, but who is destined to make a big leap with the second round at Wimbledon. The match had no history: the Roman controlled from start to finish, giving Ivaska just 8 games: 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. On the pitch all the solidity and precious pieces of his repertoire, from the serve to the net game.
Berrettini, fresh winner on the grass, less noble in spite of the name, of the Queen’s club, which on the way to the important part of the scoreboard has given up just one set, will tomorrow find the twenty-year-old Canadian, world number 21 Auger-Aliassime (who beat the German Zverev) to keep dreaming.
Also ahead the number one Djokovic, who got rid of the Chilean Garin without difficulty, while two other of the top eight seeded players return home: Rublev (defeated by the Hungarian Fucsovics, Djokovic’s next obstacle) and Bautista Agut who sold by crash in front of the Canadian Shapovalov.
Among the top eight of the seeding goes on, therefore, also Federer, who on his twenty-second appearance in a tournament he has won eight times has beaten Sonego who still files his Wimbledon with a very good result, at the end of a match that was also interrupted, towards the end of the first set to allow the roof of the central court of Wimbledon to be closed: a ground on which Sonego set foot for the first time in his career and that his opponent knows as the backyard of his home.