Matteo Berrettini ‘heartbroken’ to announce Wimbledon 2022 ‘dream is over’, hands Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic advantage
Matteo Berrettini will not compete at Wimbledon this year, announcing just hours before his first round match that he has contracted Covid.
The 2021 Wimbledon finalist has won 21 of his last 22 matches on grass and was coming into The Championships with titles from Stuttgart and Queen’s under his belt from this month.
Now, Berrettini will have to wait until 2023 to return to the lawns of the All England Club, giving lucky loser Elias Ymer a shot in his place.
The Italian captioned an Instagram post: “I am heartbroken to announce that I need to withdraw from Wimbledon due to a positive COVID-19 test result.”
He added that he has been isolating with symptoms for the past few days and despite only mild symptoms thought it best to test in the interest of the safety of others.
Berrettini was certainly one of the top three favourites to win Wimbledon this year along with six-time champion Novak Djokovic and calendar Slam contender Rafael Nadal.
Triple defending champion Djokovic said of the 26-year-old in his post-match press conference yesterday: “He is definitely top two, top three players in the world on grass in the last three years.
“His results are testament to that.”
As one of the favourites, Berrettini posed the biggest threat to the 20 and 22-time Major champions on the grass this tournament.
Djokovic would have met Berrettini in the final again had they both reached that stage, whereas the Italian would have taken on Nadal in the semi-finals, again if they made it there.
For Berrettini, the disappointment of not being able to compete at SW19 will be compounded by the contrast with the elation of his two titles immediately after coming back from hand surgery that saw him away from competition for nearly three months.
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