Matteo Berrettini told Walter Veltroni during a long interview with Corriere della Sera: “Tennis helps you get to know yourself and teaches you to lose. And defeat makes you improve: as Mandela said, I never lose but I learn. I lived dark and I thought it was unfair, but now I’m fine and I understand that I’m happy just playing. Fear for me is the fundamental engine. I still dream of Wimbledon, but the goal now is to keep the unease away.”
THE TORONTO MASTERS 1000 ON SKY
From the first approaches with the tennis and the beginnings of his career at the Wimbledon final in 2021. Then the dark after the injury that held him back and the restart, up to the goals still to be achieved. He’s a Matthew Berrettini with an open heart what was told to Walter Veltroni during a long interview for the Corriere della Sera. “I started playing tennis when I was three – Berrettini began -, when my parents, who were and still are members of a club, placed a racket with attached rubber balls in my hands. I didn’t like it, I wanted to do judo, martial arts. Then my brother convinced me that tennis was more fun than pure effort: when I was eight I picked up my racket and never put it down again. The relationship between effort and enjoyment is fifty-fifty, but in the effort I’ve always managed to enjoy myself. I like to challenge myself and constantly try to push my limits: ever since I was a child, whether I took a canoe or played ping pong, I wanted and had to win. AND fatigue has always been the tool to satisfy this desire to go further. At the age of 20, after being stopped for six months due to a knee injury, I reached the final of a Challenger tournament in Andria and I began to think that with my passion, perhaps, I could even eat and pay the bills “.
“I hate losing, but I use defeat to improve myself”
Berrettini then explained what tennis means to him and what his relationship is with defeat: “As a boy I loved team sports – he continued -, but I soon realized that I liked taking responsibility, be the reason for the fate of a race and put all the weight of a victory or a defeat on my shoulders. Above all, I needed to get to know myself. On the tennis court my body and my brain have no more secrets. Every gesture is thought out, wanted and suffered because the outcome of what you do depends on every gesture. Tennis looks inside you and I understood that to excel in this sport you must first get to know yourself. Tennis teaches you to lose, even the best have to deal with defeat. I I hate losing, but I’ve always used defeat to improve myself: for me it’s a bigger engine than winning. Trying not to feel the anger, frustration or sometimes the humiliation that defeat causes pushes me to look for ways to remove those flaws that led me to lose a match or tournament. Own as Nelson Mandela said, ‘I never lose: I either win or I learn’. I think of the Wimbledon final. I’ve had an incredible journey and it could be possible to lose to Djokovic, but I was so close to the title that I still watch that match to understand where I could do better. I lost that final, but I was proud to have shared something with my country that Italians were proud of. The only defeat I can’t stand is negative inertia, the renunciation of fighting. It’s something I can’t forgive myself: I never want to give up“.
“I have known darkness, but this is how I came out of it”
After the boom at Wimbledon, the complicated moment due to a series of injuries: “I’m trying to figure out what happened to my physique – admitted Berrettini -, it is difficult to make an objective analysis of what happens in the body, made up of muscles and psyche. In the last year I have experienced too many physical and mental strains: my body and my head in some moments were not aligned and I was asking too much of one or the other. Clinically, I had an internal oblique tear. My mind doesn’t let me accept those physiological moments of down that exist for everyone: when I’m in trouble I tend to accelerate and this isn’t always right. Actually, it’s a mistake: when the head deludes itself that it’s fine and the body is sick, you pay the price I paid. Did I have a moment of psychological darkness? Yes, due to not being able to compete. Competition keeps me alive, even when I’m exhausted. Not being able to do it introduced me to the dark and this seems to have no end, it seems to swallow you: instead of standing still and refusing your breath, you dig yourself an abyss. They were bad moments, but also fundamental ones to make me rediscover the joy of what I started as a child and then I’ve always done in my life. Darkness gave me space to rethink my origins and find myself. I came out of it recovering the purity, joy and charm of a choice I made as a boy thinking only of the fact that this was what I wanted to feel good. My life had become a sequence of ‘musts’: I had to play certain tournaments, win and be a certain way. I know the duty exists, but it must be combined with the pleasure and joy of doing what you have chosen“.
“Hurt by lack of feeling, but I’m fine now”
“I have never felt alone – Matteo added -, luckily I’m full of people who love me and who relate to me not for the quality of the sports results but for the existence of a smile. In those days but I felt uncomfortable: it seemed unfair to me that due to physical problems I had to face so much wickedness and that everyone who used to cheer for me should judge and criticize me. In the end I was blocked by my body and tried to fight back, paying the ultimate price. I missed this elementary solidarity e not finding this sensitivity hurt me. I social did they influence? Estranging myself because someone spoke badly seemed like an act of weakness, I didn’t want to give in or run away. But I realized that my mood changed according to the tone of a hundred people writing their legitimate, but often unfair comments. My mood must have depended on something else. Now, knocking on wood, I say that I’m fine, but in this sport the whole muscular system and the mind are subjected to constant changes. Today I feel good inside and when I go on the pitch I have a smile“.
“I thought about saying enough, but I’m not happy without tennis”
There was a moment in which Berrettini even thought of giving up: “If I had to give my child some advice, I would tell myself to enjoy the moments when I was happy more. But this sport and this social life lead you to devour everything, even time and emotions. After Wimbledon and the excitement of meeting President Mattarella, I immediately started thinking about my next commitments. So that joy got out of hand. Happiness on the other hand must be grasped and savored. If I felt like saying enough? A lot of times. In 2020 I had a complicated year and I had the thought, which helped me sleep, of taking my passport and, without saying anything, fleeing where no one could find me. I wondered why I had to go through all this pressure and dealing with the guilt of my injured body. Then, over time and comparisons with others, I realized that I’m only happy if I go out on the field and breathe that atmosphere. If I don’t do it, I’m unhappy: it’s a magnificent sentence that I have chosen for myself and that still today gives me immense joy. I’m trying to learn to be happy despite defeat: I believe that happiness is the sum of many little things. I think the motivation and happiness of a tennis player is the desire to surpass oneself and keep the charm of when one was a child”.
“I am a true friend”
In closing, Berrettini spoke about his approach to fear, his relationship with his colleagues on the circuit and his next goals: “Fear for me is the fundamental engine. If I’m not afraid, something is wrong. When I woke up serene before a game, then I always played badly. Controlled fear is key. A friend in the circuit? Lorenzo Sonego, the only one with whom he has a relationship that exceeds the field. My next goals? In my heart, on a sporting level, there is Wimbledon. But also the internationals of Rome. But now that I’ve known the malaise, the goal is to keep it away and not to frequent it anymore. I want to experience tennis for what it is: joy and challenge to improve yourself.”
ATP RANKING
Alcaraz always 1st, Berrettini loses 3 positions
Carlos Alcaraz remains at the top of the ATP ranking ahead of Djokovic, with Sinner confirmed at No. 8 in the ranking. Zverev goes up again, Musetti remains in 18th place. Berrettini loses three positions and slips to 40th place, ahead of Sonego. Here is the updated ranking
1) CARLOS ALCARAZ – 9225 points
2) NOVAK DJOKOVIC – 8795 points
3) DANIIL MEDVEDEV – 6520 points