“I’m so tired of it”: Matteo Berrettini’s comeback ends in a Roland-Garros retirement, and a new injury
The Italian expressed deep frustration over yet another physical setback in Roland-Garros quarter-final, highlighting his weariness with repeated withdrawals despite being proud of his tournament fight.
Matteo Berrettini reacts to an injury during the quarterfinal of Roland-Garros 2026 | © AP Photos / Christophe Ena / SIPA)
Matteo Berrettini’s run to the Roland-Garros quarter-finals ended in retirement on Tuesday. The Italian forced to stop against compatriot Matteo Arnaldi with a hip injury – and visibly weary of a body that keeps breaking down.
The pain began early. “In the middle of the first set I started to feel something when I was serving,” Berrettini said. “The more I played, the more I served, the more forehands I hit, the worse I felt.” After a medical time-out, during which he was told the area was badly inflamed, he concluded he had no option. “If I’d kept playing I’d have done way worse, and the recovery would have been longer,” he said. “I didn’t have any choice other than to retire.”
The hardest part, he said, was not the decision itself but its familiarity. “It was really hard – mostly because I’ve done it many times, and I’m tired of retiring,” Berrettini said. “I’m the last one who wants to retire. I don’t want to do it, but sometimes you have to.” He spoke of being robbed of an ending: “I just wanted to finish my match. I feel it took away the chance to perform until the last point.”
He identified the problem as his hip – distinct, he said, from the right-hip trouble that hampered him in 2019 and 2020 – and was unwilling to guess at a timeline. “This area I know less,” Berrettini said. “I don’t know how long it’ll keep me out; I’ll leave that to the doctors.” His fear was specific: “In my head there was the thought of not wanting to be out three months. I hope I stopped in time.”
Let’s hope we see each other again.
Yet he was determined to leave with perspective intact. Weeks ago, he noted, his presence in the last eight would have seemed impossible. “A few days ago it would have been crazy to think of me in the quarter-finals,” he said. “I’ll try to go back home with a smile. I’m disappointed and sad, but I’m also proud of the way I fought through this tournament.”
Berrettini, who reached the fourth round here for the first time since his 2021 Wimbledon-final season, now faces an anxious wait on scans, with grass – long his best surface – and Wimbledon, just over three weeks away, both in jeopardy. “I felt in rhythm, I felt there were good sensations on court,” he said. “Let’s hope we see each other again.”
