Matteo Berrettini vents: "Hard to think about the future"

Matteo Berrettini in a press conference looked heartbroken after his defeat against Alexei Popyrin in the first round of the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome. The Azzurro lost sharply in two sets: “Thinking about the future and the next tournaments is difficult. But not because I don’t want to play but because I left the court 15 minutes ago. It’s also right to be in sadness, in sorrow, otherwise it would mean that I don’t care about anything.”

The Roman tennis player must try to turn the page and recover the best condition as soon as possible: “I recharge, I try to get clarity with what happened and then we start again. The important thing is to go to sleep with some thoughts with a couple of nights, which I have to get out.”

During the second set, Berrettini bickered with the chair judge who had a point repeated after the Australian dropped the antivibration tie-break: “I got nervous because the umpires now only have to call the score. Never called let for antivibration, and I’ve been playing tennis since I’m six years old, I got nervous as it’s normal.”

However, the Italian is not looking for excuses: “Winning that game would have shot, but not that stuff there on a single point. At this level, unless you make that mistake on 6-5 in the third, in the tie-break, it can’t affect you. Even though I was grinding in that game though. A classic game where you get back on track after losing a set. From there he served very well.” Berrettini will return to the court at Roland Garros, then try to fine-tune for the season on grass, his favorite.