Berrettini speaks on bumping into Becker at Wimbledon: "I wasn't even sure if the guy would recognise me"

Matteo Berrettini had an excellent start to the grass court season winning at Queen's and goes into 2021 Wimbledon as one of the favourites as a result.

The Italian who has been improving constantly bumped into the last player who won Queen's on debut and that is Boris Becker who as a 17-year-old won in 1985 before winning his first Slam at the All England club.

He detailed their meeting as well as what advice was given.

“I wasn’t even sure if the guy would recognise me,” Berrettini said to the Evening Standard.

“He walked by and he was like ‘congrats, now we have something in common’ and I was like ‘oh wow’.

“For me, he’s such a legend – I didn’t expect that. I said thanks but then said ‘you still won a little bit more than me – I’ll try to catch up but it’s going to be tough’.”

“He told me to keep my mind easy, don’t lose energy about stuff that’s not important."

“He said ‘if you want a long run here at Wimbledon, you have to be mentally ready so just relax now, switch off when you can and focus on what’s important’.”