Matteo Berrettini’s dream of making a deep run at his home ATP Masters 1000 tournament came to an end in the opening round.
Berrettini lost to Alexei Popyrin in the first round of the Italian Open in Rome, with the Australian advancing in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
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Popyrin earned his first win at an ATP Masters 1000 event in nine months, having last managed a victory at the level in August 2025 at the Cincinnati Open.
For Berrettini, the defeat marks a ninth straight pre-fourth round exit at a Masters tournament, in what continues to be a difficult season.
Following his loss, the former Wimbledon finalist admitted he had regrets about his performance in front of a home crowd.
Matteo Berrettini delivers immediate reaction after loss in Rome
As per We Are Tennis Italia, Berrettini said: “I’m sad because I didn’t know how to manage my emotions, and my tennis suffered.
“I thought this a lot, and I regret that I didn’t fully enjoy the atmosphere of Rome,” concluded the 30-year-old, whose best result at the Italian Open was a quarterfinal finish in 2020.
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Berrettini has made just one quarterfinal appearance on the ATP Tour this year, which came at the Rio Open in February.
After withdrawing from the Australian Open, he lost in the second round of the Indian Wells Open and the third round in Miami.
At the Monte-Carlo Masters, Berrettini picked up the best win of his season so far; a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Daniil Medvedev.
But he exited the competition to Joao Fonseca before suffering a first-round loss in both Madrid and Rome.
Alexei Popyrin reacts after first Masters win since August 2025
Reacting to the victory in his on-court interview, Popyrin said: “It was solid. I think Matteo is an unbelievable player, and it’s never easy to play in front of a home crowd like that, so I think considering the circumstances, I think it was a very good performance for myself.
“Really solid from my side. I think there’s a few things that I need to kind of touch up here and there but considering the year I’ve had and everything that’s been going on this year with me off the court I think it’s been a pretty good performance.”
“I took a couple of weeks off after Madrid and, you know, just decided not to play the weekend in between, and, look, I feel like I just needed a little reset, you know, and hopefully it’s worked.
“It’s only been one match, but for me, just off from the mental side, I just need to get back to playing a little bit more freely.
“I think, when you go through these kind of dips that I’ve been through for the last couple of months, you tend to overthink things and then you start to overthink things on the court and it just it all becomes a big jumble.
“So I kind of had to just reset myself, try and get back to playing a little bit free and hopefully it’s been working and so far today it worked pretty well. I think it was a really solid match in both sets.”
Popyrin will take on Jakub Mensik in the next round of the Italian Open.
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