Berrettini in semifinale a Wimbledon – Sport

by time news

LONDON. He suffered more than he ever did in his path on the grass of Wimbledon, but in the end a historic milestone has come for Matteo Berrettini: after 61 years an Italian is in the semifinals of the most prestigious tournament in the world. The Roman tennis player, fresh winner of the Queen’s Championship, got the better of the young Canadian talent Felix Auger-Aliassime in four sets, who put him in trouble for three hours and four minutes before surrendering to the service and physical and mental solidity of Berrettini. After the blue triumph at Wembley, the tricolor is also waving on the other ‘Big W’ of London sport, a tournament that has never been particularly friendly to the blue colors. So much so that, in fact, we have to go back to 1960 to find an Italian in the semifinal. Then it was Nicola Pietrangeli who was stopped on the threshold of the final by a tennis legend like the Australian Rod Lever. On Friday Berrettini (number 7 on the board) will attempt a new venture in a match that, on paper, sees him as the favorite. He will face the Pole Herbert Hurkacz (14 of the seeding) who, in the other quarter-final, chased the eight-time winner of Wimbledon, his majesty Roger Federer, from his garden. “If he beat Federer it means he is fine – he said at the end of the match – but now I have faith and play every game to win it”. Matteo Berrettini and Felix Auger-Aliassime are great friends: their girlfriends are also very good friends and have spent part of the quarantine training together in Australia. But on the pitch, of course, friendships have to be put aside. Berrettini started very strong in the first set, closed at 6-3. Then, however, Auger-Aliassime began to make fewer mistakes and fixed the service starting to make Berrettini suffer from the answer. The Italian began to suffer the aggression of the opponent and gave up a hard-fought second set. The great balance of the third set was interrupted only at the last game when Berrettini snatched the serve from Auger-Aliassime taking away all certainties: the fourth was a formality, with Berrettini, thanks to an almost impregnable serve, now launched towards the final: 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, the final score. On the other side of the board continues the triumphal march of Novak Djokovic who in three sets got rid of one of the main surprises of the tournament, the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. The world number one, winner of the last two Wimbledon editions, those of ’18 and 19, is expected in the semifinals by the Canadian Denis Shapolavov (seeded number 10), who in a five-set marathon defeated the Russian Chacanov . With the departure of 40-year-old Federer, almost humiliated in the defeat in three sets marked by an unappealable 6-0 in the third, the Serbian remains the last bastion of the ‘old guard’ still in the race for the title. Winning Sunday Djokovic would equal the Swiss and Rafa Nadal to 20 slams, but the youngsters are on the hunt and the challenge remains open. The blue colors at Wimbledon do not count, however, only on Berrettini: Simone Bolelli, in fact, earned the semifinal in the men’s doubles, paired with the Argentine Maximo Gonzalez. They will see it with the other Argentine Zeballos and the Spanish Granollers, to try to reach a historic final, even if the importance and prestige of the two boards are not comparable.

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