Lots of Australia for Berrettini: the season starts with a bang.
Just enough time to toast Christmas with family and close friends that immediately Matteo Berrettini boarded a plane to reach faraway Australia. The land where last year, by necessity, he was not able to play, but in which, in the past, he took a lot of satisfaction. Which, apparently, he has every intention of repeating.
His season will officially begin in a few hours. The Roman has opted for the Atp 250 in Brisbane and his hope, of course, is to win. Not so much because of the success that would come with it, but rather because he absolutely needs to cash in on ranking points. The goal for this early in the season is to climb a few positions so that he can be one of the 32 seeds at the Australian Open.
There is a good chance he can do it, all the more so considering that if there is one thing he really does not lack right now it is, without a shadow of a doubt, determination. He has so much will to win that it will be difficult for any opponent to tame him and get away with it tomorrow, Dec. 30. Starting with the first one he will meet in this 2025 so full of expectations, the one whom fate, by means of the Brisbane main draw, has decided to put in front of him.
Arnaldi like Berrettini: lots of Australia in Brisbane
The 2021 Wimbledon finalist will open the new season with a not at all obvious duel against Jordan Thompson. In both head-to-heads – one in 2015, the other in 2019 – it was the Roman who prevailed, but there is one variable we must necessarily take into account in this first round of the Australian Slam.
Thompson is Australian and you know that in tennis, as in life, the home sweet home principle always applies. Matthew will not have the crowd on his side and will have to work a little harder, at least it is assumed, to beat the former world number 26 for the third time. Should he succeed in imposing himself once again, he would then run into Grigor Dimitrov, another tough nut to crack to defeat whom he will need a deluxe version of the hammer.
In the Italian quota, in Brisbane, there will also be Matteo Arnaldi, who, just like Berrettini, will face one of the home coaches, namely Alexei Popyrin. All that remains to be seen, at this point, is how far the two Matthews will be willing to go to start this season with a bang.
