Berrettini wins, cramps immediately in bizarre Indian Wells scene!
Matteo Berrettini cramped immediately after his final shot en route to a first-round win Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open, sealing victory at the perfect moment.
Upon clinching his 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 win against Adrian Mannarino, the Italian fell to the ground in pain and sat there for roughly five minutes while receiving a visit from the ATP supervisor and physio. Smiling in relief despite the pain, Berrettini left everything on court to earn a second-round showdown against fourth seed Alexander Zverev.
“I fought really hard, until the very last point,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview. “At the beginning of the third [set], I started to feel a little bit of cramping. I was little bit surprised at the beginning but then I remembered that I was sick until three days ago, so I was like, ‘Okay, it’s normal’.”
Berrettini entered the match 0-2 against Mannarino and the Frenchman started Wednesday’s clash by winning his sixth consecutive set against the Italian. The 29-year-old then leaned on his backhand slice to set up opportunities for his booming forehand, while also dropping just five points behind his first serve in the decider, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to advance.
Berrettini will next look to improve upon his 3-4 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Zverev.
In other action, Gael Monfils became the second-oldest match winner (39 years, six months) in tournament history by ousting Alexis Galarneau 6-3, 6-4. Only Ivo Karlovic (40) was older when he reached the fourth round in 2019.
The Frenchman will meet ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round.
Reilly Opelka won an all-American clash against Ethan Quinn 7-5, 7-6(3) while Jenson Brooksby downed Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-4. Gabriel Diallo defeated Mattia Bellucci 7-6(5), 6-4 and Zizou Bergs was a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Jan-Lennard Struff.