Being ranked among the best in the world is one of the ultimate goals for a tennis player but achieving such an accolade also has its drawbacks that few speak about.
Matteo Berrettini is Italy’s highest ranked player on the ATP Tour and has been continuously ranked in the world’s top 10 since his debut in October 2019. With a trio of Tour titles under his name the 24-year-old made headlines almost two years ago with his run to the semi-finals of the US Open in what remains his best Grand Slam performance to date. Since then he has not gone beyond the fourth round of a major.
Reflecting on his rise in the sport, Berrettini admits for the first time he has found it hard handling the pressure and expectation placed upon him after becoming a member of the top 10. Writing for Eurosport’s Players’ Voice, he says his rise in the sport has also had an impact on his personal life as well.
“I did not find it easy getting used to the sudden pressures of climbing the rankings so quickly. For me, I was tiptoeing, but suddenly felt like everyone was waiting for me to go faster. It is as if you have chosen a path, but that path suddenly becomes another. Imagine it this way: you are walking along a side road at your own pace, but it suddenly merges into a highway and everything travels so fast; you have to adapt immediately or otherwise you will be overtaken,” Berrettini wrote.
“When you get near the top, there is so much more you have to deal with, and not just tennis, but personal things too. Before, my life seemed much simpler; I go to the court, I play tennis, I think about winning. Today, there are so many more things to think about: managing expectations, those of others as well as my own, but also maintaining my relationships.”
This season Berrettini has experienced an encouraging start with wins over Dominic Thiem, Gael Monfils and Roberto Bautista Agut at the ATP Cup. He also reached the quarter-finals of the Antalya Open and the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Elaborating further on his experience on the Tour, he admits that the mental side of the game has become more of a challenge for him in recent months. Berrettini has also endured his fair share of injury setbacks over the past month with the most recent being an abdominal strain he suffered during the Australian Open.
“The higher you go, the more complicated things get,” he said. “Because in addition to all of your worries about the technical and physical aspects of your game, which are fundamental, you have to also train the ‘boss’, as they say in Rome, the head.”
Regardless of the experiences, his dreams for the future remain the same. Winning the Italian Open, who was last won by a home player in 1976, as well as Grand Slam glory.
“Looking ahead on the court, I look forward to hopefully bringing happiness to fans, to feel that adrenaline once more of being able to excite and inspire people of all ages. With that extra incentive, I hope my results will speak for themselves,” Berrettini concluded.
Berrettini is the first Italian man in history to have won a match at the season-ending ATP Finals after defeating Dominic Thiem back in 2019.