Matteo Berrettini is doing his very best to battle through adversity at a time when it must feel the gods are against him. The 26-year-old Italian defended his Queen’s Club Championships title despite a variety of factors conspiring to send him down the world rankings.
After returning from a three-month lay off because of minor surgery in his right hand, Berrettini won his first tournament back by defeating Andy Murray in the Stuttgart Open final a fortnight ago. Here, he backed this up in West Kensington by seeing off Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-4 for his tenth consecutive win on grass.
Berrettini has already surpassed his expectations before he arrives at Wimbledon next week as one of the contenders for the title. The pressure on his shoulders had felt a little heavier this year because of the lack of world ranking points on offer at Wimbledon this year. As last year’s runner-up, he was set to drop from No 11 outside the top 20, but his victories in Stuttgart and Queen’s should help limit the damage to a fall of no more than six places.
“To be honest I have too many emotions, coming back from surgery and winning two titles in a row, defending my title here,” Berrettini said. “I can’t believe it. I arrived in Stuttgart and wasn’t feeling great, hitting the ball the way I wanted, but it went pretty well. I couldn’t ask for a better preparation, but this isn’t preparation as it’s one of the most prestigious tournaments we have.”
Under the reasonable seedings formula previously used by Wimbledon, which gave more weighting to previous results on grass, Berrettini would have been seeded No 3 for next week’s championships. But the All England Club now solely base the seedings on the 52-week world rankings across all surfaces, pushing him down to No 8. It means he could face Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal as early as the quarter-finals.
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“I know it is not going to be easy [at Wimbledon],” Berrettini said. “I’m the kind of guy that is pushing through the limits every time, and I guess that is one of the reasons why I get injured, because I push my body, my mind and everything just to get better. I would lie if I told you that the main goal is not to win Wimbledon, but I know it is not going to be easy.”
Meanwhile, the British No 8 Katie Swan claimed a stunning upset against the 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the first round of the Bad Homburg Open in Germany. Swan, 23, who is ranked No 217 in the world, fought back from a set down to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, which bodes well ahead of her appearance as a wild card at Wimbledon.
