This is a golden age for Italian tennis, but the man who was first to fly the Italian flag often gets overlooked. Matteo Berrettini set so many firsts for his country – he was the Wimbledon runner-up in 2021, and was a crucial part of Italy’s Davis Cup winning team in 2024 – but a run of injuries has kept him out of the spotlight.
Many people know Berrettini without necessarily knowing who he is. The striking 1.96m (6ft 5in) Italian is both a tennis player and a fashion model for a leading German clothing and jewellery brand, and life-sized photos of him adorn shopping malls and airport duty-free areas around the world. But the man from Rome has one of the biggest serves in tennis, and used it to become the first-ever Italian to reach the Wimbledon final, where it took his fellow Head ambassador Novak Djokovic to stop him.
The Italian pioneer whose career has been blighted by injury
Yet even in that final, the roots of the persistent abdominal injuries that have stopped Berrettini achieving as much as he might have done were apparent. And it wasn’t just injuries – Berrettini caught Covid-19 in a locker room in June 2022, denying him the chance to defend his runner-up ranking points at Wimbledon.
Not convinced about tennis
Berrettini’s parents first put a racquet in his hand at the age of three. “My whole family played tennis,” he says. “My parents were members of a tennis club in Rome, but at first I didn’t really love it that much and I tried other sports like judo and swimming. But when I was eight my little brother Jacobo, who was already playing tennis, told me, ‘Come back, try again – you’ll like it.’ And so I did, and I never stopped.”
At 14, Berrettini began training at another club in Rome so he could work with Vincenzo Santopadre, a former ATP tour player. It was the start of a coaching relationship that lasted more than 12 years.
Handling a young player in today’s high pressure age is not easy, with coaches or parents often too anxious for early success. Santopadre ensured that did not happen with young Matteo. While contemporaries spent long hours on court every day, Santopadre recognised that the teenaged Berrettini was not ready, either mentally or physically, for the demands of the tour.
"I was ranked 400 at the end of 2016 and three years later I was 8!"
The coach was proved right. Berrettini’s need for knee surgery at 16 showed a body not fully ready for the rigours of the tour, he only earned his first ranking point at 19, and he was 21 before he won his match at tour level in January 2018. “After that it was all very fast,” he said. “I was ranked 400 at the end of 2016, and three years later I was 8!”
Encouragement from a notable source had come five years before. Adriano Panatta, Italy’s French Open champion in 1976 and the most successful Italian male player until the current generation arrived, watched Berrettini play and told him he would be able to serve at 220 km/h when he grew. “I said, ‘You sure about that?’ because I was skinny at the time,” Berrettini says, “but Adriano said I had a loose arm and a good motion, and he was right.”
Berrettini is a big hitter but a very gentle man. He was one of the stars of the first series of the online documentary Break Point, and he is a very eloquent speaker. But the injuries have held him back. A comeback in 2025 looked to be going well, until a side strain (another abdominal problem) forced him to retire in Madrid and Rome, and miss Roland Garros.
If Berrettini can manage his injuries, a return to the top 10 is still within reach. And he still has that big serve, which can win him numerous cheap points. When he was first offered a choice of racquets by Head at age 12, he opted for one from the Head Extreme range, the brand he still endorses today. “I chose the more powerful Extreme,” he says, “because it suited the way I wanted to play. I have always been an aggressive player.”
Words by Sebastián Torok and Chris Bowers
