Despite recently being hampered by injury and taking on the highest-ranked player in the world, Matteo Berrettini wasn’t entirely satisfied with his latest performance at Wimbledon.
The Italian world no.38 fell in four sets to Carlos Alcaraz in what was a closely contested encounter on Center Court. Berrettini took the first set before getting broken once in each of the following three sets. His loss follows back-to-back wins over seeds Alex de Minaur and Alexander Zverev at the tournament last week.
“I think I still could have played better, but that’s tennis. It’s not always what you wish for,” the Italian said after his defeat.
“Probably in a few days, I’m going to appreciate even more what I did. I thought about not playing two days before the tournament. So being in the fourth round and losing like this against Carlos, it’s something I have to be proud of but at the same time I’m competitive and I always want to win when I step on the court.” He added.
Coming into the Grand Slam Berrettini’s only taste of grasscourt tennis this year on the Tour was a 6-1, 6-2, loss to Lorenzo Sonego in Stuttgart. For the past three months he has been sidelined from the sport due to an oblique injury he sustained in April at Monte Carlo. More recently, he was unable to defend his title in Queen’s last month due to an abdominal injury.
Despite those setbacks, the self-described perfectionist feels there were areas of his game that he could have done better against Alcaraz. A player who he defeated in five sets in the last Grand Slam meeting a the 2022 Australian Open.
“I think I could have done better when I was returning,” he analyzed.
“The sets that I lost, I think the return of the second serve wasn’t as aggressive as I planned to. With my forehand, I could have done way better.’
“With Carlos, you almost have to hit every shot like full power because otherwise, he’s going to get there.”
Berrettini, who reached the Wimbledon final in 2021, adds that he believes his attitude ‘wasn’t that good’ but attributes that to the level of player he was against.
“I wouldn’t say a great job but I did a good job but not good enough to beat him.” He concluded.
