ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 8, 2025

Matteo Berrettini

Press Conference

M. BERRETTINI/A. Zverev

2-6, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. That's the biggest win of your career. What does it mean to you to get that win and the way you ground it out? What sort of belief does that give you going forward?

MATTEO BERRETTINI: Yeah, I'm really happy, really proud of the way I turned the match around. I wasn't feeling my best in the first set especially, and I have to say that Sascha was playing a really high-level tennis.

Yeah, so in order to change and switch the momentum around, I really had to push hard, especially mentally, you know, to tell myself to believe in my strokes and to believe in my tennis and just to enjoy the fight.

That's what I did and what I kept telling myself, especially in the third set when things were a little bit tricky at the end of it.

Q. The crowd was really behind you quite impressively, which happens quite often here with Italians. How important is that? What part does it play in the fact you managed to change the game?

MATTEO BERRETTINI: No, it's so important for us, for all the Italians. I think it's special. It definitely helped me when, you know, in some moments I also tried to make them even louder. You know, like it gives you energy, especially when you're tired.

So definitely thanks to them and thanks to their support and support of my team, it was one of the big reasons why I was able to turn the match around.

You know, I have this memory of three years ago when I got injured here, and the next day I was in bed, because I couldn't move. My ab was really hurting. Every time I was sneezing or coughing, it was really painful.

They were playing on center court, and I could hear them, like, from my apartment. It was a tough day. It was a tough day.

So it was like now I'm going to enjoy, now I'm going to make them scream for me, and that's why I also found that kind of energy in the third.

Q. Talk about the mental battle you probably won at the end of the third. We have impression that probably you growing that part of your game. Talk about that at the end of the game.

MATTEO BERRETTINI: I think for the way I play, since I was a kid, I was younger, I always play matches that were really tight. Like, I wasn't getting broken a lot, but at the same time, I wasn't really able to break a lot.

So it happened that I won a lot of matches 7-6 in the fifth, 7-6 in the third, 7-5 in the third. I like to play in these moments, and I think I have been pretty successful in my career.

So then obviously when you don't play and you lost a little bit of momentum and confidence especially, it happens that you can lose these matches.

But with these kind of feelings that I'm feeling right now during the matches, which is mostly joy and joy of, like, of the fight, right, like, I was telling myself to enjoy the fight, I think then it helps you to do the right things and be brave in the right moments.

I think be able to break him after the way I got broken, it wasn't really nice, it means that mentally I'm tough and I'm ready for the fight.

Yeah, it's something definitely that it requires work but also requires heart. So really proud of that.

Q. Matteo, you touched on Zverev showing a high level, but he said that he thinks from when you broke him in the second set he played terribly. Do you have a different read on that? What do you think was going on on his side of the net?

MATTEO BERRETTINI: I mean, it's never easy to be sharp after a match, you know, a tough loss, but I have to say that in the first set he was playing really high-level tennis and really aggressive.

Then I think when he saw me being more aggressive and trying to believe in my strokes a little bit more, he started to lose a little bit of court. That's what I felt like, okay, now, the momentum switched, right?

Since that moment you could actually tell it was the other way around. That's why at the beginning I was a little bit surprised by him. Like, normally he would be a little bit more passive and then try to get in the court. He started really aggressive from the beginning.

So I don't think the level was bad. I just think he changed a little bit the way how he was playing. But also I think for the things that I also have done, that obviously it's a mental game. Yeah.