Berrettini, shadows on the Roman tennis player’s retirement. He’s convinced: here’s what’s really behind his latest decision.
The fact that he had not landed in Rome early, like everyone else, had been strange in itself. Matteo Berrettini showed up at the Foro Italico just hours before his debut and trained without pushing too hard. We all knew, then, that the chances of him eventually participating were slim to none.
So much so that the news of his withdrawal surprised no one, really. It is surprising that there is no clarity, however, around what is going on. It is not known whether yet another forfeit is really due to the after-effects of tonsillitis or whether, instead, there is more to it. The suspicion is there and it is legitimate, sacrosanct. Especially since in interviews in the Eternal City he has not seemed to have his spirits soaring. And the fear is precisely that he may once again be in the grip of those negative feelings he has had to deal with in the long months he has spent in the pits.
That, in any case, is not the point, but rather that everyone has a theory about Matteo’s situation. Including former tennis player Luca Bottazzi, who mercilessly spoke about the Italian with Mowmag, in an interview in which he was not very soft on his fellow Roman, a finalist at Wimbledon 2021.
Bottazzi sinks Berrettini: “What is this? “
“I feel sorry for him, because he seemed to have at least overcome the crises of these last two years where he was retiring all the time and that he had at least found a continuity in playing without retiring. He started softly, except to later retract and, like a river in flood, unleash a bit of hypothesis all to be verified.
“What kind of stuff is that we are witnessing? If someone is not well, I find it strange that he would sign up for tournaments and take wildcards. Then if he’s so sick it means it’s a chronic condition then, in the sense that you get over it but then it comes back. However, if he had mentioned tonsillitis it means that there is always a different one: then he is also unlucky, because he makes the collection of sicknesses. I don’t know, do they all happen to him? Get a blessing, go to Lourdes. At some point it seems almost impressive to me.”
Bottazzi says he is convinced, basically, that there are other “interests” at play: “Evidently there is something chronic, which passes him by and then obviously comes back because he solicits the problem by playing: playing tennis is not like going to sunbathe on a deck chair. But of course a professional doesn’t say that because today there are sponsors. If it was tennis 50 years ago they would have said it.” “Because they’re trying to keep the revenue coming in,” the former tennis player sinks, “Today’s tennis players and top athletes have a lot more privileges (and I repeat the word privileges) than those of the past who squared their butts practically for the glory and allowed those of today to get to this point and overachieve. This is because someone has kept the circus going for dozens of years. Suspicion might arise, because there are too many interests involved. I have no elements to make statements, however, the suspicion is this. “
