Matteo Berrettini, narrow defeat in Saudi Arabia

The Roman tennis player and the Russian were defeated 10-7 in the third by the Hurkacz-Stricker pair

Good practice. Matteo Berrettini sends his experience at the exhibition tournament at the Diriyah Cup 2022, staged on the concrete of Saudi Arabia, into the archives by losing the doubles final, in which he was paired with Andrey Rublev of Russia, to Poland’s Hurbert Hurkacz and Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker, who prevailed after a hard-fought match to the last stroke.

7-6 (8) 3-6 10-7 was the final score in favor of the two, who played the important final points better. After losing the first set in the tie-break, Berrettini and Rublev had put the match back on its feet by getting the decisive break in the eighth game and fending off their opponents’ comeback attempts by canceling a break point in the next game, only to succumb in the super tie-break to a matter of details.

Matteo Berrettini, nicknamed “The Hammer” on the ATP circuit because of the power of his serve and forehand strokes, decided to go all in on tennis thanks to the valuable advice of his younger brother Jacopo, also a professional tennis player. Since the age of 14 he has been training with Vincenzo Santopadre, who is still his current coach.

Berrettini is considered the best Italian player ever on grass, being the only one to have reached the Wimbledon final in 2021. He also boasts the second-best ranking ever for an Italian tennis player, having reached the No. 6 position in the ATP rankings in January 2022.