World Number eight, Matteo Berrettini holds high esteem for the 16-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic. He adores the Serb’s defensive aspect of his game and undoubtedly he is the machine man of tennis.

“Against Novak it’s hard, many things he does bother me. He returns very well, plays very well on the backhand side, so it’s going to be a very difficult match technique-wise. But it will be a very nice emotion. We trained together in Cincinnati, he is a pleasant person,” said the Italian tennis player, Matteo Berrettini. 

This year, Matteo Berrettini breezed into the semi-finals of US Open 2019 and en route to the last four round in New York, he played one of the best matches of the year against Gael Monfils and then lost to the eventual champion, Rafael Nadal.

Earlier this year, Berrettini held an eight-match winning streak on the European grass and later made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon where set up a match against his idol and the eight-time champion, Roger Federer. Post his defeat, the Italian thanked the Swiss maestro for the lesson and enquired how much he owed him.

This year, Berrettini played Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray, and he will lock horns with Novak Djokovic in his first match at ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday. 

“It’s a dream come true. Everybody is asking me if I am aware of it and I am not really aware. This year has been very important from every point of view: mentally I managed to go through very complicated situations, besides handling new ones. I improved, my level raised,” the Rome native said.

With Gael Monfils’ defeat at Rolex Paris Masters 2019 to the Canadian, Denis Shapovalov, Matteo Berrettini became the eighth man to reserve his spot at ATP World Tour Finals 2019 in London.

This year Berrettini won two ATP titles, the first one came in Stuttgart and the other one in Gstaad.