An emotional Matteo Berrettini says he’s finally regaining his belief in his abilities after advancing to the French Open’s fourth round with a victory over Francisco Comesana on Saturday in Paris.
The former world number six has faced ongoing fitness challenges and has only made it to the fourth round of a Grand Slam once since 2022, missing eight of 18 major tournaments following his championship match loss to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon five years ago.
The Italian player emerged victorious in an exhausting five-hour marathon against Argentina’s Comesana on Saturday, taking the match 7-6(3) 5-7 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(15-13).
“I know what it takes to go deep in a slam, but at the same time, it’s also true that I haven’t been deep in a slam for a long time,” Berrettini told reporters after his win.
“Coming into the tournament, I didn’t have the confidence, like I had a couple of years ago, but at the same time, I feel like I have built this confidence up.
“I’m in the fourth round, second week of Paris, means that I can go deep. I’m playing well. Today was, I think, a high-level match. My weapons are working, physically I’m there, and fingers crossed.”
Following the victory, Berrettini seemed to fight back tears while acknowledging the crowd at Court Simonne Mathieu.
“I doubted about myself a little bit too much, I think, in the last months and years,” the 30-year-old said.
“Even though I had unbelievable support from my family, from my friends, from my team, and everybody kept telling me that I still had it in me. Sometimes I just have to confess that I thought that I couldn’t come back, I couldn’t feel good on court again.
“That’s why I was emotional, because I proved to myself one more time that I can do this, I can do it well, I can fight, I can enjoy my time on court.”
His next opponent will be Juan Manuel Cerundolo from Argentina, who scored an upset victory over world number one Jannik Sinner in the second round.
