Matteo Berrettini reached his first Grand Slam final at
Wimbledon which he will contest tomorrow and his coach spoke about his journey.
One of the main reasons behind Berrettini's rise and success has been his longtime coach Vincenzo Santopadre who has coached him for the past 11 years. He spoke to the media ahead of the final and asked about what it means to reach it he said:
"It is a dream, it is unreal, it is a lot to process. But I told him after, that I think if he can play like this, he can win Wimbledon."
He was also asked what it means for him as a coahc to see him succeed and he said:
"It is unbelievable. We grew up together. Everyone in the team – me, the physio, the trainer, the mental coach – we have been working with Matteo for 11 years. It is a long time, it is special. I still had hair when I started working with him and I don’t know if it is the passing of the years as to why I have lost my hair or because of watching him play every match!"
Santopadre was also asked about bulding Matteo's game and he said:
"We were able to build a complete player. In my opinion, a lot of coaches try to specialise players too soon when they are young. Instead, when Matteo was young, aged 14, 15, 16 years old, we wanted to build a player who could play on every surface. We wanted him to be able to play attacking and defensive tennis, have every shot, such as a backhand slice. I think he is a complete player."