The last remaining Italian player at the Australian Open has been forced to pull out of his fourth round showdown with Stefanos Tsitsipas due to injury.
Ninth seed Matteo Berrettini has withdrawn from his clash against the Greek which was set to take place at the Rod Laver Arena on Monday. In a press release it was confirmed that the 24-year-old is dealing with an abdominal strain which troubled him during his previous match against Karen Khachanov. After his third round win, Berrettini told Italian media that he felt that he had pulled something in his rib area.
“I don’t know what happened. I felt here under my rib something that pulled, but the physio said that nothing was pulled,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“It could be some muscle that wasn’t working properly, but I was really feeling it when I was serving and obviously my mindset went a little bit away, because I was thinking about it.”
Humorously one of the first people to report on Berrettini’s withdrawal was Rafael Nadal during his press conference when looking ahead to his next match. Inadvertently saying that his fellow tennis player is ‘a little bit injured’ during a time when an official announcement was set to be made. He then added ‘well, I messed it up’ when he realised what had happened which prompted laughter in the media room.
Berrettini was in the midst of his best run at Melbourne Park after reaching the fourth round for the first time in his career. Prior to Khachanov, he also defeated Kevin Anderson and Tomas Machac.
As a result of the Italian’s misfortunes, Tsitsipas now has a quarter-final showdown with Nadal later this week. It will be the second time they have faced each other at Melbourne Park after the 2019 where they clashed in the semi-finals. Overall Nadal, who has been blighted by a back issue in recent days, leads their head-to-head 6-1.
“The preparation probably had been worse this year than the year before because I had that problem on the back for the last 19, 20 days. But I found a way to be where I am today and the feelings are right there without a doubt,” said Nadal.
“I made a step forward today, something that I needed, and I need to make another one for Wednesday against Tsitsipas.”
The quarter-final match will take place on Wednesday.
