Matteo Berrettini’s hopes of making an impression at his home tournament were dashed early, falling in the first round of the Italian Open.
Berrettini was beaten by Alexei Popyrin, who moved on to the next round with a straight-sets win, 6-2, 6-3.
Popyrin’s victory was his first at an ATP Masters 1000 event since August 2025, when he won a match at the Cincinnati Open. It also added to what has already been a tough year for Berrettini.
The defeat marked Berrettini’s ninth consecutive Masters tournament without reaching the fourth round. The former Wimbledon finalist admitted afterwards that he was disappointed with how he played, especially in front of his home fans.
Berrettini shares thoughts after early Rome exit
Berrettini reflected on the match, telling We Are Tennis Italia: “I’m sad because I didn’t know how to manage my emotions, and my tennis suffered.
“I thought this a lot, and I regret that I didn’t fully enjoy the atmosphere of Rome,” he added. The 30-year-old’s best showing at the Italian Open remains a quarterfinal run in 2020.
This year has been tough for Berrettini, with just one quarterfinal appearance so far, which came at the Rio Open back in February.
He missed the Australian Open due to injury and then fell in the second round at Indian Wells before reaching the third round in Miami.
His standout win of the season came at Monte-Carlo, where he defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-0, 6-0. But that form didn’t carry over, as he lost next to Joao Fonseca before suffering early exits in both Madrid and Rome.
Alexei Popyrin shares thoughts after breaking Masters drought
In his post-match interview, Popyrin said:
“It was solid. I think Matteo is an unbelievable player, and it’s never easy to play in front of a home crowd like that, so I think considering the circumstances, I think it was a very good performance for myself.
“Really solid from my side. I think there’s a few things that I need to kind of touch up here and there but considering the year I’ve had and everything that’s been going on this year with me off the court I think it’s been a pretty good performance.”
“I took a couple of weeks off after Madrid and, you know, just decided not to play the weekend in between, and, look, I feel like I just needed a little reset, you know, and hopefully it’s worked.
“It’s only been one match, but for me, just off from the mental side, I just need to get back to playing a little bit more freely.
“I think, when you go through these kind of dips that I’ve been through for the last couple of months, you tend to overthink things and then you start to overthink things on the court and it just it all becomes a big jumble.
“So I kind of had to just reset myself, try and get back to playing a little bit free and hopefully it’s been working and so far today it worked pretty well. I think it was a really solid match in both sets.”
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