By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 4, 2022
Flushing Meadows, NY—Matteo Berrettini had to miss Wimbledon this summer due to contracting Covid at the wrong time.
This year at the US Open, the Italian is back with a vengeance.
13th-seeded Berrettini took out Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Sunday in Louis Armstrong Stadium, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to book a quarterfinal clash with Norway’s Casper Ruud.
Ruud, seeded five, topped French lucky loser Corentin Moutet 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 to become the first Norwegian to ever reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.
Berrettini and Ruud have met five times, with Ruud winning their last meeting this summer, in the final in Gstaad on clay.
Perhaps more importantly, it was Berrettini who took their lone US Open clash, in the third round in 2020. It was their only hard court meeting.
The first order of concern for Ruud will be dealing with Berrettini’s booming serves. The 26-year-old has cracked 63 aces through four rounds and he has won 90 percent of his service games.
“I haven't really cracked the code because it's not an easy code to crack, his serve,” Ruud told reporters on Sunday. “I think here on the hard court I will need to try to stay and neutralize it as good as I can. And I do like to sometimes hit some block returns just to get it in play.
"I think that will – not going to give away my strategy – but I think I will sort of think like a goalkeeper and not let him pass me with his serve and get a lot of balls back in play.”
Ruud has had the better year than Berrettini overall, and he is one of four players with the potential to finish the US Open as the No.1-ranked players, along with Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz. But it is Berrettini who has seems to thrive at the Open.
The Italian improved to 16-4 lifetime at the US Open on Sunday, with his three-hour and 45-minute seesaw victory over the cagey, entertaining Davidovich Fokina.
“I was down a set and a break, and I think he was playing a really good level of tennis,” Berrettini said. “I wasn't feeling bad. It was just that he was just playing better than me. I kept believing in my game, my strokes. I was able to take the second set in tiebreak, I think that was the key of the game. Two sets to love down would have been tougher.”
Berrettini says that the players are going to try to do the same things when they meet on Sunday. It will come down to which player can do it better.
“We kind of have a similar game,” he said. “We like to run around our forehands, putting a lot of spin on the ball, and being aggressive.
“I think the key is to be aggressive before him. I'm going to try to make him run and not gonna run too much. The key I think is to be aggressive, to use my weapons, my serve, obviously my forehand.”
Berrettini has already spent thirteen hours on court through four rounds, while Ruud, who had to go five sets to defeat Tommy Paul in the third round, has spent 12:51. Neither player should have any big advantage there.
If there is an advantage to be had, it will come from Berrettini’s serve and his comfort level in New York. A semifinalist in 2019, he has only lost to top players since 2019. He fell to Nadal in the semifinals in 2019, then to Andrey Rublev in the fourth round in 2022. Last year it was Novak Djokovic that defeated him.
He’s also proven to be one of the most consistent performers at the Grand Slams. He has been to the quarterfinals or beyond in each of his last five major appearances. The only players to beat Nadal in his last five majors are Novak Djokovic (3 times) and Nadal (once).
“It's not a secret for me the slams are the goal of the season,” he said. “I missed two this year, and it was really tough to kind of overcome it mentally. But I think it proves that my level is high in slams, and I'm really solid, that I like to play best-of-five, and I give my best and I play my best tennis in the most important stages of the tour.
“So this is something that sometimes I kind of forget and I have to remind myself, because it's important for my confidence, as well. It makes me proud, makes me want to do more, it makes me want to lift a bigger trophy
Ruud has come along swiftly at the Slams as well. He was a Roland-Garros finalist in June, and he is also a vastly improved hard court player."
He shouldn't be counted count, even if he isn't known for his fast surface prowess as much as Berrettini is.