In environmental conditions like this, it is impossible not to pass the turn. And so it is. But let’s get the facts straight. The support is one-sided, like when Monza plays at Maradona, with the Australians on the side of the Monza team, few and a little intimidated. The same goes for the titles, all in favor of the Italians. To say, Thanasi Kokkinakisformer child prodigy of the Aussies, has collected little in his career, an ATP 250 singles title, moreover at his home, in Adelaide, and three in doubles, including the slam alongside Nick Kyrgios in Melbourne 2022; Matteo Berrettini has a very different list of successes, eight cups between ATP 500 and 250 and six finals, the most important of which at Wimbledon in 2021. Both from 1996, both Aries – the Italian is two (2) days older, which certainly they don’t make the difference – they share the power of the serve, the preference to hit forehands, the obstinacy of not relying enough on the backhand when they are in difficulty on the left or they have to set up an attack. They are the protagonists of the match that opens the second semifinal of Davis 2024, on the result of which depends whether or not to place all the responsibilities on the shoulders of Jannik Sinner, who will be on the field later against Alex de Minaur.
The Roman gets several break opportunities in the first set, and the last one – the only converted one – sends him serving ahead 6-5. It’s there that Kokkinakis starts hitting with his full arm, cancels a set point, earns the first break point of the match, which he doesn’t waste. In the tie break the former number 6 in the world could have taken advantage of a double fault from the big boy of Greek origin to close calmly, but instead he was first reached at 6 all and then had a blackout on serve.
In the second half, Berrettini struggled to regain his confidence and perhaps he wouldn’t have succeeded without the constant use of his serves, thanks to which in the circuit they call him “the Hammer”. He appears not very mobile, sometimes getting caught by Kokkinakis’ passers. Which instead is in a luxury version as I have never seen it in many years of ups and downs, with a best ATP ranking of 65 (now it is 77). Oblivious to the many injuries suffered in his career (in this too, he is a clone of Berrettini), lucid and precise, he makes few mistakes and, when he has to serve, has percentages, at times, better than those of his opponent. But in the eighth game he gives a couple of chances to Matteo, who takes advantage of them. Having won the set, the number 35 in the world and 4 in Italy starts again with the awareness that between him and Thanasi there remains a gap more in experience than in technique. The balance is not broken because the Australian does what he did in the spring of 2018, when he eliminated Roger Federer in the second round in Miami: determined to be recognized among the eminent Australian tennis players of the twenty-first century. Matteo is not intimidated, he keeps the pace and in the eleventh game, when he has the last chance, he breaks. Serving for the match, he finally uses his backhand with great skill, and corners an opponent who has done everything he could. After 2 hours and 43 minutes, the battle ends at 6-7 6-3 7-5 while at least five thousand away Italians sing and dance to “Tu” by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi in the stands of the Martin Carpena Arena.
The hero of the day is therefore him, Berrettini, who with full merit brings home the first point for Italy, if you count the opportunities he created for himself. “Yes, I played a complete game, in the sense that I attacked and defended,” he will say later in the press conference. “When I take the field for Davis I always remember the emotion of when I watched the matches on TV as a child. Today the special energy of the audience helped me a lot. And the guys from our garage all told me very useful things to support me and give me the energy I was looking for.” In short, it’s a team victory.
When the fateful cinco de la tarde arrives, Sinner just has to start doing his thing, which is to win the seventy-second game of the season (six defeats). The victim of the day is de Minaur, who was raised tennis-wise in Alicante, over 400 kilometers north-east of Malaga, but who proudly chose to represent Australia, where he was born. In the first set the match was so unequal that it didn’t deserve more than seven words and a score: Jannik dominated far and wide. Alex, who is a fighter with a stable place among the Top 10, redeems himself in the second set, which sees him competing on equal terms, in exchanges without any more psychological subjugation. He also shows some bravura pieces that the audience applauds generously, without nationalistic defections. The break for the world number 1 comes at 4 all, and it is an error by de Minaur in response to the serve that crystallizes the final result at 6-3 6-4 in an hour and a half. This time the fans dance and sing to the remix of “Il cielo è semper blu” by Rino Gaetano.
The Azzurri are in the final again, a few days after the triumph of Tatiana Garbin’s girls in the Billie Jean King Cup and a year after that of Filippo Volandri’s boys here in Malaga. The last obstacle, tomorrow, will be the Dutch, who have never reached a Davis final.
#Berrettini #Sinner #Italy #world #tremble
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