Matteo Berrettini is keeping his 2023 Wimbledon run alive by producing another solid effort to take down Alexander Zverev in three sets.
The Italian didn't really have a great prep for Wimbledon as his only match before the event was the one he played in Stuttgart against compatriot Lorenzo Sonego. He lost it and left the court in tears which got many fans thinking about whether he was truly fit to play.
The way he played that match certainly didn't look like a player that was fully fit and his withdrawals from the next events certainly confirmed that the Italian might have rushed back too soon. His next match on grass was at Wimbledon.
He was facing compatriot Lorenzo Sonego once more and was playing really well. Despite that solid play, Berrettini dropped the opening set to Sonego in the tiebreak. The match was stopped due to rain after that and once they returned, Berrettini looked much better. He turned the match around winning it in the end. Since that win, the Italian has been going strong.
Playing well at Wimbledon is nothing new for him as he's done it in the past. He played in the 2021 final losing to Djokovic but even so, nobody really expected him to make this great of a turnaround so quickly. He struggled for much of this year with his tennis though he wasn't healthy for much of it either.
Zverev is a decent matchup for him, especially on grass where the German doesn't play that well. Despite seemingly being a good fit on the surface, Zverev has his limitations on the surface, limitations Berrettini was able to use to his advantage.
He won the opening set 6-3 thanks to outplaying the German in the crucial rallies. He lost more points on his serve than Sascha but converted his break point while Zverev didn't do the same and that was that. Neither was particularly brilliant from the baseline in that one.
The second set went to a tiebreak so you might think that a few rallies proved crucial once again. You're right as both were quite brilliant on their serve not allowing a single break point until then. Zverev lost only one point behind his 1st serve in the entire set while Berrettini dropped two.
In reality, they only dropped a combined 9 points on serve in the entire set. Remember, it went to a tiebreak. Berrettini won it 7-4 in the end, largely thanks to his serve and that one mini-break. The final set was another close one with the same script. Both dominated on the serve as we only saw break points late in the set. Zverev faced a 0-40 deficit but wiggled his way out of that mess.
After that both players comfortably held and we saw another tiebreak. It wasn't that well played overall by either player but the Italian ultimately got it done being a bit sturdier in the rallies. The final score was 6-3 7-6(4) 7-6(5) for the Italian who had 14 aces and 35 winners as well 22 unforced errors. His best match in a while to set up a fourth-round meeting with Carlos Alcaraz.
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