“There were times where my head and body weren’t aligned, I was asking too much of one or the other. Clinically it was a torn internal oblique. I think I asked too much of my body“. Thus Matteo Berrettini in an interview with “Il Corriere della Sera”, returning to his long absence from the fields which plunged him into a period of psychological darkness. “If I ever felt like saying enough? A lot of times – assures the 27-year-old Roman tennis player, former top 10 who dropped to No. 40 in the ATP ranking – In 2020 I had a complicated year and I remember having the thought, which helped me sleep, of taking my passport, not saying anything to living soul and escape where no one could find me. I happened to think about it, in dark days. But then time, the comparison with the others made me realize that I’m only happy if I go out on the pitch and breathe that atmosphere.” Berrettini also reveals his goals: “At the sporting level, Wimbledon is in my heart. And also the internationals in Rome. But today that, for the first time, I’ve known malaise, the goal is not to frequent it anymore, to keep it away. And to experience tennis for what it is: joy and challenge to improve yourself“.
