“Sinner has it all, with consistency he will hit the bottom of the Grand Slam. Berrettini is making a call-up” – OA Sport

It is already time to do this Small budget from tennis season And in Italy it was a reaction Australian Open 2023 It wasn’t exciting. Our homegrown players are well used to it, and have been able to go far in the past year: Matteo Berrettini in the semi-finals and Janik Sinner in the quarter-finals. In the 2023 edition, South Tyrol was the best, and was eliminated in the round of 16 by the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (This year’s finalist), while Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti They were knocked out in the first round by the Scotsman Britain’s Andy Murray South Africa Lloyd Harris.

The flagship that finally confirmed the exceptional performance of the Novak Djokovic. The 35-year-old Serb has a place for tenth in his career your seal At the Major in Melbourneand bring to 22 Grand Slam victories Such as Rafael Nadal (at the top of the all-time winners list) and regain Top ATP Rankings At the expense of the Spanish language Carlos Alcaraz. To talk about this and more, we turned to Stefano Pescosolidoa former player with excellent form (No. 42 in the world as best ranked in 1992) and a competent technical voice Sky Sports.

Stefano, first of all, how is he?

“Well, various commitments and tennis are always willingly followed“.

Let’s start with the topic of the moment: Novak Djokovic, 2023 Australian Open winner. Impressed by the Serb’s performance?

“An extraordinary player who keeps getting better year after year. His performance is worrying for opponents, given how he manages to develop with shots that at one point showed some weakness. I am referring to his forehand and serves, which bring him a lot of points. Because of this, opponents find themselves forced to play against a tennis player who has no weaknesses“.

An ever-hungry champ who, despite his 36-year-old age, is always capable of making a difference. Do you think he will be able to complete the Grand Slam?

“It will depend on some factors. We’ll have to see his performance on the clay, as far as the competition goes. We need to see what Rafael Nadal will be like because when Paris is involved he can never be left out of the game, let alone maybe others like Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rohn, Stefanos Tsitsipas and us. In Wimbledon he is the favorite and in New York we will have to see the vaccine issue and/or if there will be a Daniil Medvedev 2021 version“.

Let’s talk about the Italians, a disappointing Australian Open expedition?

“If we evaluate in terms of expectations, it is clear that the judgment is negative, but it is also appropriate to make a more complete judgment.“.

Well, shall we start from Matteo Berrettini?

“There is a first round elimination at the hands of a very embarrassing player like Andy Murray, who has often been a problem at Grand Slam level in the early rounds. The match against Tsitsipas at the 2021 US Open comes to mind. Mathieu paid dearly for losing the first two sets, and played poorly, because in the end he got it back and it wasn’t because of a backhand buried in the net. He was going to win. History isn’t made with ifs and buts, but it did, considering Berrettini did well in the United Cup, beating Casper Ruud and Hubert Hurkacz and competing on equal terms with Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz. I think his preparation, also due to the problem with his left foot, was incomplete and that is why with Santopadre he makes a long call to be ready in light of the commitments to come.“.

And what can we say about Lorenzo Musetti?

“In the case of Lorenzo, I think there can be no referee because so many destabilizing situations happened: first an injury to his right shoulder during the FA Cup, then an illness of Simon Tartarini that certainly made his submission against Lloyd Harris. Honestly, I don’t feel like passing judgment on him for these episodes, so I expect to see him again at the ball later.“.

And do we come to Jannik Sinner next?

“Yannick was the best and found Tsitsipas in the last 16, who eventually made it to the final. He played an excellent match, completely different from last year’s match against the Greek, also in Melbourne. But I was expecting something more in the first two sets, as you can see he got contracted and didn’t play with a full arm as much as he could. When he was down 0-2, he faded and put Tsitsipas very hard, also because he was backed up by an excellent physical condition. In the fifth set, then, anything could happen and the Greek was able to play to his strengths, also taking advantage of very few mistakes made by Sinner.“.

Paolo Lorenzi predicted to our microphones that Sinner would reach the Grand Slam Final. After all this talk, do you feel like getting involved?

“Absolutely yes, it has all the qualities to achieve this goal. For me, it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together, because obviously his choices are correct, but sometimes the implementation falls short because they’re probably mechanisms that aren’t completely automatic for him. I am referring above all to the service which I find improved, but more continuity is necessary. However, Sinner already last year, despite many ailments, is the one who advanced in the Grand Slam, taking match points against Alcaraz in New York and losing in five sets to Djokovic at Wimbledon and Tsitsipas this time. The level is there, but it needs more consistency. If he succeeds, he will have everything to reach the bottom of the stars“.

With Sinner and the other players, do you think it will also be possible to win the Davis Cup, even if he calls it a stretch?

“Davis actually had a different structure, it’s a World Collegiate Championship. In my opinion, with the old formula, Italy was the team to beat, now everything is uncertain and dependent on the situation, as happened in Malaga, where we arrived in bandages. However, Filippo Volandri can count on a perfectly valid formation that can win“.

We’ll have to beware of fierce competition and I quote the United States, which is growing rapidly, with 10 tennis players in the top 50 and Ben Shelton talked about by many insiders. his idea?

“Right now, the US doesn’t have the tip, as it did in my lifetime. I think of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. However, they have very deep movement, Fritz in the top ten and Tiafoe not far behind. They also have an interesting team of young tennis players: Sebastian Korda in Chilton. I actually saw him play last year and he impressed me. In his first experience, he reached the quarterfinals in Australia, showing truly amazing tennis. We’re talking about a strong south who has all the shots, so we have to be careful. She has crazy potential“.

We just have to enjoy the show at this point, right, Stefano?

“Absolutely yes and we hope to be able to talk about the successes of the Azzurri“.

Photo: La Presse