Berrettini, cannon shots against the fire

Berrettini celebrates his win against Monfils in the quarterfinals.LOREN ELLIOTT (REUTERS)

Leading into an interesting stage of his career, Matteo Berrettini (Rome, 25 years old) is gaining ground and consolidating himself among the strongest on the circuit, with the aspiration now to go one step further and begin to polish a file in which they appear several titles (five), all of them far from the glory of a Grand Slam. The one on the green Queen's tapestry is the one with the most substance so far. However, the Roman grows and settles down, and says he feels truly prepared for the assault on the greats, having taken an important step last year by reaching the Wimbledon final.

It's no secret: the Italian's tennis — a stem of 1.96 and currently the seventh best racket in the ATP, semi-finalist in 2019 at the US Open — gravitates around his service and his forehand, one of the most powerful in the world. circuit.

If she enters the court and takes over the free zone, it is very difficult to stop, and in addition to giving a lot of power to her serves, she directs them as if she were executing them with a

.

However, he has a hole in his two-handed backhand, a weakness that Nadal will surely try to take advantage of.

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“I want and I know I can beat him.

I'm in the semifinals of a major for the third time, so I have the level to do it.

I want to go further”, he pointed out after reducing the veteran Gael Monfils in the quarters.

He demanded a lot from the Frenchman, but he closed the door on him on 11 of the 14 occasions that the Frenchman sought a break option;

specialty of the house, since Berrettini was last year the most outstanding tennis player when it came to putting out fires, with a 73% success rate when he was in that situation.

He tells the ATP stats, too, that in the aggregate tally (break points converted, saves,

won and wins in final sets) he is the player who performed best under pressure.

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Beyond the numerical, the data highlights the progression of the Italian in the most delicate circumstances of the matches, a basic aspect to achieve his ultimate goal: Adriano Panatta, winner of the 1976 Roland Garros, is the only male representative of his country who was crowned in a Grand Slam. Berrettini wants to catch him, today in the seventh step of the

and, therefore, the best Italian classified since Corrado Barazzutti, eighth in 1978.

"I am writing a small part of the history of tennis in Italy, so I am proud," he says before the match with Nadal, whom he faced in the semifinals in New York three years ago;

then, 7-6(6), 6-4 and 6-1 in favor of the Spanish.

Berrettini will do it as the second player with the most

in this edition (92), after Maxime Cressy (95).

He signed 28 against Pablo Carreño in the round of 16, his record, and in the quarters he placated the reaction of Carlos Alcaraz.

Trained by Vicenzo Santopadre and champion in Gstaad (250 category), Budapest (250), Stuttgart (250) and Belgrade (250), as well as Queen's (500), none of them bear the hallmark of the hard court.

They have lost 10 of their 12 matches against top-

opponents , notching their only two wins against Dominic Thiem.

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