The Roman is among the top eight at Flushing Meadows

Great suffering but a victory of equally great importance for Matteo Berrettini, who earned a place among the best eight at the 2022 US Open by beating a tenacious Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the round of 16 with a final score of 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

The match, which lasted nearly four hours, started very badly for Berrettini, who immediately lost a game on his own serve and was unable to get back on track in the first set. The second fraction was also complicated and it took the number 14 ATP number’s best shots to bring himself to 1-1 in the set count, thanks to a tie-break won 7-2.

Berrettini then finally seemed to take the measures to the Spaniard winning the third set quite easily, but the number 39 ranking did not lose heart and made his own a fourth fraction in which the Italian committed a few too many carelessnesses.

Inattentions that, however, are almost completely absent in the fifth, decisive set: Berrettini accelerates and leaves the crumbs to Davidovich, thus gaining access to the quarterfinals of the American slam.