When they read the Wimbledon draw, both Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner must have smiled bitterly. And in fact, as already widely predicted, in the second round of the Championships the two Italian tennis players will compete in a fratricidal match. Jannik beat Yannick Hanfmann, surprisingly losing a set. Matteo, on the other hand, who had a more challenging match against the Hungarian Marton Fucsovic, won with the same result, again in four sets. Berrettini also interrupted the match for a few minutes due to a back problem, then fortunately returned in the fourth and final set.
At the press conference after the match, Berrettini analyzed both the first round challenge and the derby against Sinner, explaining that he has the necessary weapons to beat the young countryman.
"It's great to be able to play here again. I was very excited and happy. I'm happy to have passed to the second round. He was a very tough opponent, even though I wasn't seeded. I had some difficulties, but I managed to overcome them. It's nice to know that now I have a day off. I think I can beat Sinnerin the 2nd round. Otherwise I wouldn't have to go out on court and change jobs. Then obviously I know that I will have to do something very very good, because he is the world no. 1 and is doing incredible things. I know that I will have to play one of my best matches. But for me this is a special place so I will go out on court knowing that I can hurt him, tennis-wise.
Then from a tactical point of view I don't have many secrets: my game is based on certain things and I will have to do them as best as possible. He has improved a lot, but we live and train for these matches. I think he's not very happy either: I've played a final here and won a few titles on grass, he has to play against an Italian and the last time we played against each other it was a good match, tough. In my opinion, in the end we're both unhappy, even if he's obviously in better shape and with something extra. But tennis is also beautiful for this reason," he explained.
In an interview with Italian website Supertennis, Sinner's coach, Simone Vagnozzi, talked about many topics regarding his player, including the upcoming challenge with Berrettini.
"We trained with Sonego and then as soon as we finished it started to rain. In the afternoon he will do physiotherapy and will try to recover as much energy as possible for tomorrow. Luckily everything is ok, he trained well; on grass slips can happen and yesterday it was very humid and the court was slippery. When we say that the first rounds on grass are complicated we say it also for that reason, if it had happened to me the match would have ended there, but he continued and the fourth set was very good and allowed him to leave the court with good feelings.
Derby with Berrettini? The routine is always the same, even if you prepare a match against a guy you know well. There is a bit of a derby air even if they are used to playing each other by now, there are so many Italians in the draws that you have to get used to preparing for a derby almost every day. Sinner is the same guy as always. Of course, now we set ourselves new goals, always trying to improve, he won his first Slam and became number 1 in the world, now the goal is to try to stay up there as much as possible and try to win more Slams. He's growing and as he grows he's taking on more responsibilities and he's showing his personality more and more, the fact that you see him laugh more on the court, the fact that you see him joke more are signs that he's bringing out his full personality," he analyzed.
