Black day for Matteo Berrettini, his on-court outburst prompts discussion

Faced with competing against Dino Prizmic, who took the place of Raphael Collignon after the latter’s forfeit a few hours before the start of the match, Matteo Berrettini was unable to take measures against the young Croatian and, after a match that ended 6-3, 6-4, he waved goodbye to the Madrid Masters 1000 already after the first round.

It was a nightmarish Wednesday for Berrettini: never really in the match and leading on only one occasion (on 1-0 at the beginning of the second set), the Roman experienced moments of great sporting frustration, culminating with an outburst in the direction of coach Alessandro Bega in which he certainly did not mince words. “I can’t compete, can’t you see it?” his words, which immediately went around the world, bringing attention back to an athlete who, despite his undoubted talent, is unable to return to the levels to which he had accustomed fans and insiders in past seasons.

“What are you talking to me about tennis? It has nothing to do with raising the trajectory or not, I can’t play here,” Berrettini told his coach, confirming the difficulties of a first part of 2026 with few highs (among them the successes against Bublik in Miami and Medvedev in Monte Carlo) that will lead him, among other things, to drop out of the Top 100 on the eve of the Internazionali d’Italia.

A 1996 class, finalist at Wimbledon in 2021, Matteo Berrettini was also world No. 6 in early 2022. A spiral of physical problems, however, marked the following seasons, forcing him often to the pits and, as a result, to lose top ranking positions. Among his rare satisfactions in recent years are three tournaments won in 2024 (Marrakech, Gstaad, and Kitzbühel), as well as Davis Cup successes in 2024 and 2025 with the Italian national team.