ROMA. Yet another injury for Matteo Berrettini who in the Tokyo tournament is forced to stop at the best moment. The blue player engaged in the second round of the “Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships” against the Frenchman Athur Fils, n.24 ATP, was forced to retire in the first game of the second half, for a abdominal muscle problemafter just over an hour and a quarter of the match.
All this after the first set won thanks to a magnificent tie break played by the 28-year-old Roman, n.45 in the ranking, who at the changeover asks for the intervention of the physiotherapist (the discomfort is precisely in his abdominals) and, although in pain, still chooses to continue. But only for four more points: on serve at 15-40 all in the first game of the second half Berrettini says that’s enough and retires.
After the rather positive parenthesis with the national team in Bologna in Group A of the Davis Cup Finals, the Italian made his debut in Tokyo with a convincing victory against the Dutch Botic van de Zandschulp, n.67 ATP, coming from the qualifiers, overtaken for the fourth time in as many challenges. It seemed like an encouraging start in view of the Roman’s declared objective: to climb positions in the rankings so as to be seeded at the Australian Open next January, facilitated by the fact that he has no points to defend (last year he closed the season after the right ankle injury suffered at the US Open). Now a probable new stop, the duration of which is yet to be established.
Positive debut instead – even if with some flaws – for Lorenzo Musetti in the ‘China Open’, ATP 500 on the hard courts of the Olympic Green Tennis Center in Beijing. The 22-year-old from Carrara, n.19 in the ranking and 6 in the seeding, fresh from the final in Chengdu, beat the Belgian Zizou Bergs, from from the qualifiers. In the second round Musetti will find Yunchaokette Bu, n.96 ATP after the semi-final in Hangzhou last week, and competing thanks to a wild card. They advance to Beijing Carlos Alcarazdespite the tense nerves demonstrated by the fight with the serious judge over a warning (“I can’t play like that…”) and Daniil Medvedev: the two are third and fourth respectively in the Live Race to Turin.
Meanwhile Jannik Sinner he is expected tomorrow morning by the Russian Román Rišátovič The soapy wool in the round of 16 of the Chinese tournament. No.1 in the world who greeted his padel friend Francesco Totti on social media from Beijing. After the words of the former n. 10 of Roma on Sky Sport (“Since he played with me he has never lost”, referring to the padel performance at the 2023 Italian Internazionali), the tennis player responded through the official account of Milan-Cortina 2026: ” Playing with Totti brought me luck. If Francesco skied with me, we would see him at the Olympics.”
2024-09-27 19:04:25