A beaming Matteo Berrettini mentioned tennis is the “love of my life” after reaching a Grand Slam quarter-final for the primary time in virtually 4 years.
The 30-year-old beat Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (8-6) and is certainly one of three Italians within the final eight – the primary time this has occurred within the Open period, regardless of world primary Jannik Sinner exiting within the second spherical.
Flavio Cobolli, the tenth seed, beat Zachary Svajda in 4 units whereas Matteo Arnaldi spent greater than 5 hours on court docket to beat nineteenth seed Frances Tiafoe.
Arnaldi, the world quantity 104, will play Berrettini in his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final, guaranteeing a minimum of one Italian – and one participant ranked outdoors the highest 100 – will attain the final 4.
Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, reached a career-high world quantity six in 2022 however has slipped to a hundred and fifth within the rankings after being suffering from accidents and health issues.
“[Tennis] is the love of my life, if it wasn’t I would not be right here,” Berrettini mentioned.
“After all of the setbacks, all of the accidents, all of the dangerous moments, I got here again as soon as once more.
“There have been moments the place it was actually robust to come back again and play, as a result of I wasn’t prepared and I wasn’t positive about my confidence – now I really feel nice.”
Berrettini is the lowest-ranked Roland Garros quarter-finalist since Igor Andreev in 2007.
