Reuters
Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 3, 2021 Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in action during his third round match against Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene REUTERS/Paul Childs
Reuters
Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 3, 2021 Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in action during his third round match against Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene REUTERS/Paul Childs
World No.8 Matteo Berrettini is having a fantastic season so far. He won the Queen’s Club Championships 2021 title and also ended up as the runner-up of the Wimbledon Championships 2021. However, the Italian will not be a part of Italy’s tennis team that will be traveling to Tokyo for the Olympic Games.
In a recent interview, Berrettini revealed the actual reason for not playing at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. He mentioned that even though he had been preparing himself for the tournament for two years, he can’t go there as he is not fully fit. Unfortunately, the Italian injured himself in London and thus, is not in a position to play the sport right now.
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Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 1, 2021. Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in action during his second-round match against Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp REUTERS/Toby Melville
“It was an appointment I had been waiting for two years, given the postponement. Until the end I thought about going to Tokyo even ‘broken’, but it wouldn’t make sense, I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted, that is to fight for a medal,” said Berrettini in the interview.
World No.8 highlighted that he would have even gone to Tokyo with an injury. However, he believes there is no purpose of playing at the biggest sporting event if he can’t win a medal there.
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Matteo Berrettini withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics only after long discussions with his team
Berrettini further added that if he would have traveled to Tokyo, there was a chance that he might have worsened his injury. Thus, after long deliberations with his team, he decided to withdraw from the Olympic Games.
Reuters
Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 11, 2021. Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in action during his final match against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic REUTERS/Paul Childs
“I also risked worsening the injury. After long meetings with the team, I decided to give up,” concluded the Italian player.
After skipping the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Matteo Berrettini will now prepare himself for the upcoming hard-court season. He was a semi-finalist at the US Open 2019 and fans expect a similar kind of performance in 2021 as well. Will he be able to succeed in New York this year?
