Berrettini, after digging deep — the De Minaur wall awaits

The Italian has found a bit of light — but he’ll need a miracle to back it up against the Australian wall, fresh and razor-sharp.

Three hours and 18 minutes of play, hundreds of backhands struck, and a lot of grit—that’s what it took for Berrettini to get past Norrie today. It wasn’t exactly top-tier tennis, but given where he’s coming from it’s a very nice win for the Italian, and he showed a level above what he had in his last matches.

Now he’s facing a major problem, isn’t he? He has to do it all over again tomorrow, and not against just anyone since he’ll be playing De Minaur. The Italian looked worn out at the end of the match, he said in the press conference that he was very tired, so it’s hard to be optimistic for tomorrow. De Minaur is the +++ version of Norrie: he runs everywhere, he’s solid, he counterpunches brilliantly—everything you don’t want to see on the other side of the net when you’re cooked, and in rather slow conditions to boot.

ADM, for his part, calmly handled his first two rounds, had a day off, and will therefore show up tomorrow in the best possible shape.