Berrettini has finally spoken openly about it: the truth about his present.
Being a spectator is not his style. He’s good at that too, yes, but Matteo Berrettini is much stronger on the court than near it. And that is why the news of Filippo Volandri’s “reconsideration” has greatly cheered the Italian fans. The captain of the Azzurri national team had not included him among the pre-conveners, but he had nonetheless hinted on several occasions that he was unlikely to leave the Roman giant and his steel muscles at home.
The pre-convocations had been made on the basis of ranking, a criterion that had necessarily penalized the 2021 Wimbledon finalist. When it came to draw the line, however, Volandri had no doubts about what to do: being able to choose from among florals of tennis players is a luxury for few, but it fits that, amid such a vast assortment of champions, the choice fell on Matteo, a formidable team man and former top ten player.
Fighting alongside him, in the hopes of winning a second Davis Cup, will be Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. A deadly quintet that promises sparks and that could, why not, succeed in that feat that on paper seems very difficult but not impossible, for Italtennis. Especially since Berrettini, already in Malaga since last weekend, is loaded to the brim, as they say in typical youth slang.
Berrettini with an open heart: Davis his cure
He believes and does well, the Roman hammer, who in an interview with GQ opened his heart like he hasn’t done in a long time. First, however, he wanted to pit his own prediction.
“The dream clearly is to be able to pull up the salad bowl,” he said, “as it is called. The team is very strong, in fact, I would say one of the strongest and, moreover, we are defending champions, so I would hope for a win. Making predictions, however, is really very difficult for a million reasons, but especially because the format of the Davis Cup now is very particular: with two singles and a doubles it really takes very little to upset everything, we will have to be careful with every single point.”
Then, the unexpected confession: “My tennis goal for 2025 is to be even higher in the rankings again, to be able to do well in the big tournaments, in the Slam and Master 1000 tournaments. I always have a hard time dreaming or imagining anything because then life, sometimes in a very positive way sometimes in a very negative way, has always surprised me. I hope to have that energy again and again, though. I happened to lose it and the most important thing for me is to feel stimulated, whatever I do. That is my wish.” And quite frankly, we wish it too.
