Jannik Sinner, eighth in the seed list for the 2023 championships
“Fortune is blind, but bad luck sees very well…”. This mocking maxim fits perfectly for a first comment on the Italians’ draw at the 2023 edition of Wimbledon, which recently concluded in London. Appealing to luck in sport is never a good exercise in style because in the end it is – and thankfully – always the pitch that speaks, but this time the ballot box has not been very kind to our players. There was great expectation to find out Matteo Berrettini’s first round and draw position, finalist in 2021. The Roman is in the top part of the draw, meeting Lorenzo Sonego in a fratricidal derby. A really bad scenario for both of them and above all for Matteo, who played his last official match against his friend from Turin, the clear (and painful for his size) defeat he suffered a few weeks ago in Stuttgart. Berrettini trains to find a good condition, but the videos shot on the internet showed him with a mild rhythm to say the least… For this reason he kept his fingers crossed for a smoother and less demanding debut, also mentally. Let’s hope for him that the ‘holy’ London courts bring back to life that spectacular tennis machine that has captivated us so often over the past few years. sonego He lost a bad game against Zhang this week but will be a clear favorite against Berrettini. Unfortunately, the pair’s bad luck doesn’t stop at the dreadful first round: whoever wins will almost certainly find Alex De Minaur, a well-endowed tennis player, on the pitch, and eventually Sasha Zverev too. In short, things went pretty badly for Lorenzo and Matteo…
Good for the immediate future but then the draw was really difficult for Lorenzo Musetti, fresh from the best placement at number 15 and seeded at number 14 of the championships. In fact, the Tuscan fished well in the first round, where he challenges the Peruvian varillas and then risks hitting the giant Isner, who when he’s “into” grass can be a terrible bogeyman… and that’s going in a hypothetical third round will almost certainly be Hurkacz, a semi-finalist here and a very strong tennis player on grass. We’re then from the Djokovic parts, which almost certainly means ‘curtain’.
Marco Cecchinato first place in the draw, he was drawn to top seed no. 25, Chilean Jarry, who can be a very dangerous rival with this serve, also because the Sicilian’s somewhat wide openings on grass aren’t exactly the maximum. It’s going to be quite a difficult fight for Marco who, in case of victory, would find two “herbivores” like Humbert and Kübler. He is also one of the unlucky ones in the draw.
Always in the upper part of the board, which is very well finished Matthew Arnaldi, victorious in the three qualifiers. He has a playable first round against Spaniard Carballes Baena, far from being a turf specialist but a very quick tennis player on the court and endowed with a precise and consistent serve. The Sanremo player’s cuts, attacks and variations seem tailor-made to offer good tennis on today’s turf, so we think he’s a slight favorite and hope he doesn’t pay the mental price of his Wimbledon debut. There’s a chance to play a great game and win, and then things go terribly uphill in the second round as sixth seed Holger Rune will almost certainly be there. Playable debut, second round almost unaffordable for Arnaldi.
We leave Jannik Sinner with the last, sixth and last blue spot in the draw. It’s the most anticipated thanks to its seeded No. 8 and last year he reached the quarter-finals, where he topped His Majesty Novak Djokovic by two sets before enjoying the comeback of “Djoker”. Leading the bottom of the draw, Sinner drew a decent board. It’s no way to the crucial days, but honestly it could have been much, much worse. In his debut, Jannik actually finds Juan Manuel Cerundolo, one of the true “Terraioli” of the tour, the first match could not have been fished much better…. In the second round there is then the winner of Kecmanovic vs. Schwartzmann. The Serb’s victory is very likely, a very talented tennis player but with a rigid game, anchored in a rhythm that does not bore the Blues much, so much so that the previous 3-0 sinners recite. In the possible third round, the landing of Daniel Evans, an experienced player and certainly well prepared for the turf, would be Jannik’s first real test. It’s not a pleasant game on paper, but the third game could have ended worse (Dimitrov, Shelton, Bublik to name a few…). In the round of 16, a match against Taylor Fritz is very likelystrong, dangerous tennis player whom Jannik defeated 1-0 in a direct duel in Indian Wells this year. This would be a potentially big game, probably more insidious than the quarter-finals where Ruud could get a seedor Bautista Agut/Shapovalov/Coric, or among the section’s possible loose guns there is only Gasquet. In summary, Sinner’s draw is discreet going into the quarterfinals. We are on Djokovic’s sideclear favorite for the title (in addition to Musetti, Hurkacz, Auger-Aliassime and above all the two “crazy horses” Kyrgios and Bublik are on his way, but only in the quarter-finals, not before).
Finally, we point out a really undermined area of the board, the last eighth of the upper part: Norrie, O’Connell, Korda, Shelton, Cressy, Murray, Tsitsipas, all together passionate. Every man for himself….
Marco Mazzoni
