On Wednesday night, the current world number 1 from Italy – Jannik Sinner, took on his fellow countryman, the 2021 Wimbledon Men’s Singles Finalist and former Italian number 1 – Matteo Berrettini, in the 2nd round of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. The occasion marked the first time ever in the open era that two Italian men battled on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
The duo had met only once prior to this match, which was on a hard court in the 2023 Canadian Open in Montreal, where Sinner won in straight sets, 6-4 6-3. However, that match could not be considered a real indicator of what to expect from today’s match.
Since 2022, Berrettini’s career has been plagued by injuries, which derailed him from a path where grass court dominance seemed inevitable for him. And till then, Matteo was the leading man for Italian tennis. His resume on grass still looks better than most active players on tour, with 4 titles (Queen’s (ATP 500) – 2x champion – 2021 and 2022; Stuttgart (ATP 250) – 2x champion – 2019 and 2022) and a Wimbledon finalist in 2021. *
Equipped with a booming serve, a hammer-like forehand and a decent touch at the net, Berrettini has the quintessential grass court game. After winning the titles at both Queen’s and Stuttgart in 2022 and going into Wimbledon undefeated on grass and as one of the favourites for the title, it was a heartbreaking moment in his career when he had to withdraw from the tournament on testing positive for Covid-19 on the morning of his first round match. Though he is far from his best currently, he’s made some progress, making it to the Stuttgart final again this year.
* In comparison, Sinner won his first grass court title this year itself in Halle (Germany – ATP 500)!
The match started off as expected with both players serving well to hold their service games (first serve% – 74% for Sinner vs 83% for Berrettini) and thumping their forehands into the corners. The gameplan for the world number 1 seemed apparent in the first few games itself – attack Berrettini’s relatively weaker backhand wing. Though Berrettini made more unforced errors on his backhand slices in the first few games, he did enough to hold on, fending off the only break point in the set at 4-5 with an attacking approach to the net, backed by a strong inside-in forehand.
The point to note is that 62% of Sinner’s shots were directed towards Berrettini’s backhand wing in the first set (compared to 25% to the forehand and 13% at the centre). The first set was fittingly decided in a tiebreaker, where after being a mini-break down, Sinner’s impressive return of serve and defensive skills pushed him above the line.
The second set was different, with much more intent from Berrettini. The forehand looked cleaner and he mixed it up with approaches to the net to keep Sinner guessing. He came to the net 17 times in the set and won 71% of those points. Sinner kept serving at a very high level and Berrettini was unable to make any inroads in Sinner’s service games.
An aggressive Berrettini
However, Berrettini’s aggressive approach kept him in the match, saving break points in the 3rd game of the set. He then got his first break chances of the match in the 6th game at 3-2, and after missing the first one with an unforced error, he was able to convert on his second one. Sinner broke back right in the next game to make it 4-4 and seemed like the better player at that moment.
Berrettini’s backhand was vulnerable, having to run around to convert it into a forehand on many of them. However, the serve kept firing and with the help of some better slicing, he fended off break points again in the 9th game. Sinner started off the 2nd tiebreak with an exquisite backhand down-the-line winner and always seemed in control of the tiebreak from there on, extracting more errors from Berrettini’s vulnerable ground strokes.
The match statistics are provided below for a better understanding of what happened in the match.
The most staggering fact of the match is that Berrettini hit more aces, had the higher first serve%, won more points on net, converted more break points, and hit more winners in the match, but still lost the match.
And the reason for that is that Sinner consistently won more of his first serve points (even though his first serve in % was relatively lower), indicating that he was able to gain the upper hand on that first serve more often, which in turn indicates his first serve was more effective. Moreover, Sinner’s return of serve was top notch against Berrettini’s huge serve as Berrettini was only able to win 71% of his first serve points (not a very low number, but not enough against the best).
Also, while Berrettini was more aggressive with the higher winner count (double of Sinner’s), his groundstrokes were way more vulnerable, especially the backhand, which leaked almost double the unforced errors committed by Sinner in the match.
After losing two consecutive tiebreaks despite his strong serving, Berrettini did exceedingly well to fight back in the 3rd set, breaking Sinner’s serve right at the start. To be fair, Sinner’s first serve deserted him in this set (48% first serves only!) and his level dropped, committing errors on the forehand side. Berrettini’s consistent serving and aggressive approach was finally able to rattle Sinner’s composure and he went on to dominate this set, securing another break in the 5th game and closing it out at 6-2. Sinner only had one break point in this set and failed to convert it.
The 4th set was much closer. Berrettini having the momentum, he kept his backhand slices low and broke early again to take a 2-1 lead. Sinner was rattled here for a while, but regrouped well and found the timing on his groundstrokes again. Just like the second set, Sinner broke right back to level the set at 2-2 and held his service games relatively easily from there on.
Berrettini had to a save match point at 5-6 with some gutsy forehands and serves to take it to another tiebreaker. However, Sinner proved to be clutch, sending those booming serves back with perfect depth and finding his own serve at decisive moments to close out the match.
This was a stern test for Sinner right at the start of Wimbledon, where he’s seeded number 1 (his first time ever in a slam). But he came through, both, mentally and physically, against a formidable grass court player. Backing up his win in Halle (ATP 500), the transition for the first ever Italian men’s number 1 from hard and clay courts to the lush green grass has been as smooth as the surface on day 1 of Wimbledon!
