Heartbroken French Open star to undergo doctors tests after gut-wrenching retirement | Tennis | Sport

A devastated Matteo Berrettini said he was “tired of retiring” after he was forced to throw in the towel in the middle of the French Open quarter-finals after picking up a hip injury. The former world No. 6 has struggled with various physical problems throughout his career, dropping outside of the top 100. This was Berrettini’s first appearance at Roland Garros since 2021, with other injuries keeping him out over the last five years, and it ended in heartbreak.

Berrettini trailed his countryman, Matteo Arnaldi, 5-7 2-5 in their quarter-final clash when he had to call it quits. It was the eighth mid-match retirement of the Italian’s career, and his second at a Grand Slam tournament. And the dejected 30-year-old is now set to undergo doctors’ tests, with Wimbledon looming.

“In the middle of the first set, I started to feel something when I was serving, but, you know, like, I was competing. The match was very tough, and I just didn’t really think much of it. I just kept going and I tried to do my best,” the world No. 105 said after retiring in the second set.

“It was a really tough task today, but then the more that I was playing, the more I was serving, the more I was hitting forehands, the worse I was feeling. I took the medical timeout, and they told me that the area was really sore and really painful. So I just tried, but then the pain was too much, and I hope that I didn’t do any serious damage.

“I just have to wait and see in the next days for the scans and everything to see what it is. Hopefully it’s nothing too bad. I’m obviously disappointed, but I think if I kept playing, I would have done way worse and probably the recovery time would have been longer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other choices than retire.”

This had been Berrettini’s best showing at a Grand Slam tournament since the 2022 US Open, and the Italian was gutted to see his run end like this. He continued: “It was really hard, no, because I thought that wasn’t the right thing, mostly because I have done it many times and I’m tired of retiring, you know.

“I didn’t want the tournament to end like this. I just wanted to finish my match, losing, winning, obviously was important. But it’s a different feeling when you go home, and you just think about what you could have done better if you lost the match like this. I feel like was taking away the chance to perform until the last point, to try.

“It’s a little bit what happened, you know, like in the last years, but I have to take the good stuff that I did in this tournament, because a few weeks ago, few days ago, would have been crazy to think about me in the quarterfinals, and so I’ll try to go back home with a smile on my face. It’s going to be tough, but that’s how I like to approach these two weeks, and of course, I’m disappointed, I’m sad, but I’m also proud of the way I fought through this tournament.”

While Berrettini has unfortunately suffered many injuries over the years, he said he’d “never” felt anything like this. And he’s now hoping this issue won’t sideline him for too long. As a former Wimbledon finalist and two-time champion in both Stuttgart and Queen’s, he won’t want to miss the grass season.

“It’s definitely the hip. I don’t know exactly what it is. Hopefully the scans are going to be clear, you know, and they can tell me what I have. I never had anything like that. I struggled with my right hip in the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, but was different kind of pain,” he explained.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s part of the job that I do. It’s individual sport, so there is no, like, change, you know. I cannot ask for replacement. It is what it is. I have to take unfortunately the right decision.

“Even though it was obviously a big stage, I’m the last one that wants to retire. I’m so tired of it. I just I don’t want to do it, but sometimes you have to do it. A lot of players have done it in the past, and it’s the worst feeling ever, but it’s the right thing to do, because it’s not the last tournament I’m going to play in my life, and I have to think about my future. I have to think about my recovery.

“And also, we have to give Matteo the respect that in order to beat him tonight, I have to be at my 100 per cent. And today, when I retired, now I’m not in 100 per centt, and there was no chance I could keep playing like this. So altogether, you have to take the tough decision, but it’s the right one for my career.”

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