ATP Tour

Berrettini: 'I’m the last one that wants to retire'

Matteo Berrettini was enjoying a resurgent tournament at Roland Garros, powering his way into his first major quarter-final since the 2022 US Open. After earning an immediate double-break advantage against Matteo Arnaldi Wednesday evening, it appeared the Italian was on track for an even deeper run.

But due to injury, Berrettini was left to rue what could have been, unable to move well enough to compete. The former Top-10 star retired in the second set.

“I’m the last one that wants to retire. I'm so tired of it. I just don't want to do it, but sometimes you have to do it,” Berrettini said. “A lot of players have done it in the past, and it's the worst feeling ever, but it's the right thing to do, because it's not the last tournament I'm going to play in my life, and I have to think about my future. I have to think about my recovery.”

Berrettini said that he suffered a hip injury, but does not know exactly what it is. The Italian explained he has “never had anything like that”.

“In the middle of the first set, I started to feel something when I was serving, but I was competing. The match was very tough, and I just didn't really think much of it. I just kept going and I tried to do my best,” Berrettini said. “It was a really tough task today, but then the more that I was playing, the more I was serving, the more I was hitting forehands, the worse I was feeling.”

The 30-year-old took a medical timeout in the second set, but was unable to remedy his injury.

“They told me that the area was really sore and really painful. So I just tried, but then the pain was too much, and I hope that I didn't do any serious damage,” Berrettini said. “I just have to wait and see in the next days for the scans and everything to see what it is. Hopefully it's nothing too bad. I'm obviously disappointed, but I think if I kept playing, I would have done way worse and probably the recovery time would have been longer.

“Unfortunately, I didn't have any other choices than retire.”

Berrettini wore on his face the pain of not just the injury, but the realisation of what was happening, before embracing Arnaldi upon his retirement. His first Roland Garros appearance since 2021, when he also made the quarter-finals, was suddenly over.

“It was really hard, because I thought that wasn't the right thing, mostly because I have done it many times and I'm tired of retiring,” Berrettini said. “I didn't want the tournament to end like this. I just wanted to finish my match, losing, winning, obviously was important.

“But it's a different feeling when you go home and you just think about what you could have done better if you lost the match like this. I feel like was taking away the chance to perform until the last point, to try.”

The good news for Berrettini is he showed signs of his best tennis in Paris. The former World No. 6 began the tournament at World No. 105 and is now No. 48 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

“I have to take the good stuff that I did in this tournament, because a few weeks ago, few days ago, [it] would have been crazy to think about me in the quarter-finals, and so I'll try to go back home with a smile on my face,” Berrettini said. “It's going to be tough, but that's the mentality that I like to — that's how I like to approach these two weeks. And of course I'm disappointed, I'm sad, but I'm also proud of the way I fought through this tournament.”