Matteo Arnaldi beats Djokovic at the Madrid tournament. “Incredible, he has always been my idol”. Berrettini also ahead

Rome, 26 April 2025 - "It's a dream come true, Novak has always been my idol" the joy of Matthew Arnaldi and beat Novak Djokovic in two sets in the second round of the "Mutua Madrid Open".

The tennis player from Sanremo, number 44 in the world ranking, he folded 6-3 6-4 the Serbian, ATP number 5 and number 4 seed, in one hour and 42 minutes.

The 24-year-old was incredulous: "Novak is my idol, I was already happy to be able to play against him, because it had never happened before. Instead I beat him, it's incredible". He added: "To do that I had to play my best. I knew he wasn't in great shape so I tried to push the rallies forward and try to make him make mistakes. Obviously I was very tense at the beginning, I almost shit myself, also because since I was 9 or 10 I started watching his matches but then as the match went on I calmed down. I was happy to take the break first, because I knew that sooner or later he would break me. It was all perfect."

Now, to continue his adventure in the second Masters 1000 of the clay-court season, held at the Caja Magica in the Spanish capital, with a total prize pool of 8.055.385 euros, Arnaldi will have to deal with Bosnian Damir Dzumhur (63 ATP).

Matteo Berrettini also did well, n.31 of the ranking and 30 of the seeding, which beat American Marcos Giron, n.45 ATP, with the score of 6-7(3) 7-6(6) 6-1, after two hours and 35 minutes of play. The Italian will face the British Jack Draper, n.6 ATP and fifth seed in the round of XNUMX. Instead, Luciano Darderi has withdrawn. on 7-5 3-1 in favor of the American Frances Tiafoe, number 16 of the tournament.