Matteo Berrettini: yet another forfeit worries ahead of Australian Open

Matteo Berrettini: yet another forfeit worries ahead of Australian Open

Another forfeit for Matteo Berrettini. The Roman tennis player, in fact, was supposed to take the court on Friday at 2:30 a.m. Italian time against Dominic Thiem in the final day of the Kooyong Classic, but he raised the white flag, withdrawing from the exhibition tournament that instead featured Jannik Sinner, author of two fine victories over Marc Polmans and Casper Ruud.

Replacing Berrettini will be Francisco Cerundolo. It remains to be seen whether the Azure's choice not to participate in the Kooyong Classic was determined by a physical problem or was simply a precaution. In any case, his umpteenth withdrawal worries his fans, ahead of his debut at the Australian Open, where Matteo è is expected to make an iron debut against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, world number seven.

For Berrettini, this is the second forfeit in the space of a few weeks, as the former ATP No. 6 had also forfeited the Brisbane ATP 250, where he would have started from the qualifiers. That choice è cost him his exit from the Top 100 in the world rankings.

Matteo has not played an official match since the last Us Open, when he was forced to retire in the second set against Frenchman Rinderknech because of a sprained right ankle. Now his fans are hoping to see him back on the court against Tsitsipas, with whom, by the way, he trained a few days ago in Melbourne.