The Serbian is too strong: the blue wins a hard-fought first set, then suffers the inexorable comeback of the world number 1
LONDON
The memory that we will keep on us, of this day however fantastic, the light to turn on in bad days, is the chorus that accompanied Matteo Berrettini throughout his first – and we imagine, we hope, very strongly we believe – not the last Wimbledon final. “Matteo! Mat-te-ò », three syllables, a love verse for the Italian who bewitched the tournament, which continued to rain from the stands even when, at the end of the fourth set, it was clear that the ending was already written.
“It’s coming Rome”, someone tried to write on a sign, mimicking the motto of England in football; but the Wimbledon cup remained materially here, in the case of the All England Club, and virtually in Serbia, for the sixth time raised by the hands of Novak Djokovic. An immense champion, not always, not loved by everyone, but who yesterday stamped yet another card for immortality (sports, let’s not exaggerate). The sixth Wimbledon earned him the 20th major, tied with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, and also a springboard towards the Grand Slam that he could collect in September at the US Open.
Berrettini, against such a monster, did what he had to and what he could. It gave us a match and a reason to be proud of the present and confident in the future. He won the first set, literally uprooting it from the hands of the Djoker, who believed he already had it in his pocket at 5-2, cooking a small masterpiece in the tie-break and after an hour and 10 minutes he found himself two sets from the Impossible . Then he continued with the route he had imagined on the eve, hitting the serve, blocking – when he could – with the backhand and attacking with the forehand, at the cost of a few too many mistakes.
Unfortunately for him Djokovic is Djokovic, the number one in the world (perhaps, probably) the best answer in history and when he started to file the percentages the match changed color, under the livid and muggy sky of Wimbledon. Novak immediately got his hands back on the cup at the start of the second set.
In the third Matteo had the chance to return to the sixth game, but was unable to calibrate two passers-by. In the fourth, while Djokovic turned on the spare (mental) batteries, he went down to serve. After the last mistake in law he dropped to his knees, with the Djoker stretched out on the lawn, his arms crossed before tasting, as usual, the grass of the Center Court.
“It was a battle,” Djokovic admitted after 3 hours and 24 minutes. «And Matteo is really the hammer they say: I tried it on my skin, both here and in Paris».
Berrettini believed in it, he fought, he has nothing to reproach himself with. No percentage and no statistics give the measure of what it means to play a final at Wimbledon, against such a vampire.
He received the award from the venerable Duke of Kent, at his last red carpet, even Kate gave him a royal smile. “Now the emotions are too many – he said -. It was my first Grand Slam final, and it was a very long journey. But for me it is not the conclusion, it is only a beginning ». After 144 years thanks to Matthew we have really set foot in the Temple. Italian tennis can put the past aside for a while, because its future began yesterday. –