"As Federer and Nadal have shown, tennis goes beyond anything" - Matteo Berrettini on his budding friendship with countryman Lorenzo Musetti
Matteo Berrettini has spoken about his friendship with Lorenzo Musetti and cited Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's friendship as evidence that "tennis goes beyond anything."
Berrettini is recovering from an injury to his left foot incurred during the Naples tournament, where he lost to Musetti in the final. In a recent interview with Corriere dello Sport, the World No. 14 discussed his foot injury, budding friendship, and the healthy state of Italian tennis.
To the question “Is there anyone else who has been close to you since the last injury?”, Matteo Berrettini talked about his bond with fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti and how their friendship grew during the Davis Cup.
“On Tuesday I heard from Lorenzo Musetti, he wanted to know how I was. He made me very happy. Thanks also to Davis Cup, a friendship is being created between us off the pitch. I think it's very nice: as Federer and Nadal have shown, tennis goes beyond anything,” said Berrettini.
He also spoke about the need to forget that he's a tennis player during the little time he gets to spend at home in the off-season.
“A dinner with my friends. Things that I don't do often during the year. I need to get back into a perspective of normality: forget the Matteo Berrettini tennis player and become Matteo and that's it, the one who talks to friends about when he went to school, about the stunts made by kids. Things that make me reconnect with reality,” Berrettini added.
Berettini went on to share his thoughts regarding Italy’s “Big 3” — Jannik Sinner, Musetti and himself.
"If we compare them to those three that everyone knows, no, but in reality there are more than three here," he continued. "And we are not that far from each other. Sonego had a complicated year but he was 20 of the world. Fognini is always very dangerous and with Bolelli he is having a very good year in double. The best thing is that there are a lot of people following us: it doesn't matter whether they prefer me, Sinner, Musetti or the others. It's nice that they are following tennis, which has become more "mainstream." A very beautiful thing but at the same time dangerous."
Matteo Berrettini reflects on "positive" season
In the same interview with Corriere dello Sport, Matteo Berrettini reflected on his season, opining that despite the injury setbacks, it was a "positive year."
“Semifinal at the Australian Open, finals, including one in Italy, the excellent Davis, the Laver Cup, the quarterfinals at the US Open. It is obvious that expectations and pressures increase, even from the outside. Objectively, for how long it took me, for how much I played, it was a positive year,” said Berettini.
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