Berrettini splits from long-time coach Santopadre, one day after calling early end to 2023 season due to injury

The pair had been together since Berrettini was just 13, a partnership that took him into the top 10 and to the Wimbledon final in 2021

AI/Reuters/Panoramic

Simon Cambers

October 28, 2023

One day after confirming that he was cutting short his year due to injury, Matteo Berrettini announced on Saturday that he and long-time coach Vincenzo Santopadre have parted ways.

In a heartfelt message on Instagram, the Italian did not reveal the reason for the split, but thanked Santopadre for everything he had done for him.

“I arrived in your ‘tennis arms’ not yet knowing what I wanted to do with my life,” he wrote. “You managed to make me dream far away, but kept me attached to the individual days we lived. Every practice a brick, every defeat a lesson and every injury an opportunity to improve and come back stronger.

“Ours is a professional goodbye that probably enhances the personal relationship even more. I have felt you with me through every difficulty I have faced over the past 13 years, and although there have been many, when I think of us I feel only joy.

“Without you there would have been Matteo Berrettini, but there would not have been “🔨”

Injury-hit season

Berrettini said on Friday he would not be playing again until 2024, cutting short a season in which he was able to play just 12 events because of injury.

Having undergone surgery on his hand in 2022, the Italian – the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2021 – went 12-11 on the year after missing most of the clay-court season due to an abdominal injury and then suffering an ankle injury at the US Open, where he retired in the second round.

“Despite training at a high level for a few weeks my medical team has advised it would be a risk to compete in the final tournaments of the ATP season,” Berrettini wrote on Instagram.

“It has been very difficult to accept this but I need to do what is best for next season and my long term career. I will take this opportunity to reset, rebuild and start the year fully fit and healthy.”

Berrettini won three matches in the year-opening United Cup for Italy but his best performance in a Grand Slam event came at Wimbledon, where he reached the last 16, losing out to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.