The Clash of Italian Titans: Berrettini vs. Sinner at Wimbledon 2024

On one side, Matteo Berrettini, the colossus of Rome, 28 years old and former finalist. On the other, Jannik Sinner, the lanky mountaineer from the Dolomites, 22 years old and outgoing semi-finalist. On Wednesday in the second round of Wimbledon, the two most brilliant Italian players of yesterday and today face off. The first, Berrettini, reached the final of the Major on grass in 2021, with his lead serve and his lumberjack forehand. Only Novak Djokovic had been able to stop him. Since then, his career has been slowed down by injuries.

Sinner has so far only reached the semi-finals in London last year, where he was beaten by the same Djokovic. But he has already won a Grand Slam tournament (Australian Open 2024) and has risen to the rank of world No. 1 while his elder has not played another major final and has reached at best the 6th world ranking, in January 2022. Berrettini is nevertheless keen to highlight the contribution of the elders to the success of his young compatriots, of which Sinner is the standard-bearer.

Matteo Berrettini returns against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics during their men’s singles tennis match on the first day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships

Credit: Getty Images

In the eyes

“The guys I see now believe in it: you can see in their eyes that they have seen someone achieve it. World No. 1, or 6, or 10, it doesn’t matter. Fabio (Fognini, now 37, editor’s note) was world No. 9. Before, we said that the Top 10 was not for Italians. Now, that has changed, our state of mind has changed,” Berrettini emphasizes.

The current density of Italian tennis is high, but Sinner has something “special” he underlines, remembering the first time he exchanged practice balls with him, in 2019 on the clay of Monte Carlo. “I am not able to predict if a youngster will be No. 1. But I had felt that this youngster would be very, very strong. It was impressive,” recalls Berrettini. All the more impressive since clay is the surface that his young compatriot has the most difficulty taming.

But already, Sinner had this ability to learn and progress constantly. “That’s why he rose so quickly. We always forget that he is very young. At the end of last year, in the Davis Cup we were all looking at each other and saying ‘Does this guy really exist?’ He didn’t make a single mistake, he hit everything with full power…”, he remembers with admiration, he who loves to torment the balls.

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Fashion effects

According to Berrettini, the secret of Sinner’s success is his “appetite for progress” combined with great “humility”. This withdrawn attitude of the younger one is reflected in the way he experiences his status as a star in the fashion world. Berrettini and he are in fact under contract with couturiers but do not have the same approach.

For the past year in particular, the discreet Sinner – his relationship with Russian player Anna Kalinskaya remains very private – has been entering the courts with a travel bag from a famous Italian ready-to-wear brand, in addition to his racket bag. “He’s so funny when he says every time ‘They tell me to wear this, and I wear that’… He’s so natural, not that he doesn’t care, but he goes with the flow,” Berrettini notes about his cadet.

Berrettini, for his part, is much more involved in the world of fashion and did not hesitate to spread his love story with Australian player Ajla Tomljanovic, which has since ended, on Netflix. “I’ve been able to meet so many people through fashion… Sometimes it’s good to do something other than play, play, play,” he explains. As for wearing what his brand offers him without thinking, out of the question. “I’ve always had the possibility to say +this, I like, that, I don’t like,” he assures. In any case, Berrettini is delighted to measure himself once again against his compatriot (Sinner won their only confrontation to date, last year at the Masters 1000 in Canada on hard courts) because he will push him to play well to try to “be at his level.”

2024-07-02 21:34:00
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