The Italian Matteo Berrettini, a big stumbling block for the Murcian player in the round of 16
MADRID, 10 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Murcian tennis player Carlos Alcaraz will face this Monday, in the afternoon, the Italian Matteo Berrettini in the round of 16 of the Wimbledon tournament, the third ‘Grand Slam’ of the season, being the only surviving Spaniard in both individual draws and, in addition, looking to surpass his personal ceiling on the London grass.
For Alcaraz, this 2023 is only his third appearance at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. However, talking about the player from El Palmar is synonymous with talking about records. At the moment his limit is in the round of 16, when last year he fell (6-1, 6-4, [8]6-7 and 6-3) precisely against another Italian, Jannik Sinner.
This time he will face Berrettini, a Wimbledon finalist in 2021 and who is now immersed in his particular redemption. After a year and a half with a match history full of ups and downs, dragging injuries and without achieving a single victory from April until this Wimbledon 2023 began, the Roman was absent in the 2022 edition.
A few hours before making his debut against the Chilean Cristian Garín, the tennis player born in Rome announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus and made some criticism of the organization of the tournament. They were words that could be extended to the ATP circuit, due to the way they deal with these casualties due to covid-19 in the run-up to each tournament.
To make matters worse, Berrettini did not recover his best level in the many weeks that followed and he concluded that year 2022 outside the noble positions of the world ranking. When it seemed that the start of the current 2023 brought him good feelings, on April 24 he was left in the dry dock due to a grade II tear in the abdominal internal oblique muscle.
Almost two months later, his compatriot Lorenzo Sonego won it by a clear 6-1 and 6-2 in the round of 32 of the ATP 250 tournament in Stuttgart (Germany). Thus, Berrettini retired dejected from the grass track; and with no more official commitments in between, he went to London to face the third ‘big’ on the calendar.
Taking revenge against Sonego in the first round ([5]6-7, 6-3, 7-6[7] and 6-3), beating the Australian Alex de Minaur in the second round (6-3, 6-4 and 6-4) and defeating the German Alexander Zverev in the third round (6-3, 7-6[4] y 7-6[5]), the spindly Roman is taking flight and threatening Alcaraz’s path to more distant targets.
In his face to face, the statistics smile at the Murcian. The first time they met was in 2021 for the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna (Austria), with a 6-1, (2) 6-7 and 7-6 (5) win for Alcaraz; the second time, in January 2022, he won Berrettini in the round of 32 of the Australian Open 6-2, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 2-6 and 7-6 (5).
And until they see each other again in these round of 16 at Wimbledon 2023, the last precedent was a victory for the player from El Palmar in February of last year; he lived in the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), by a score of 6-2, 2-6 and 6-2.