"The darkness seems to swallow you, you dig yourself an abyss" - Matteo Berrettini opens up on his physical and mental struggles with injuries

Despite injuries forcing Matteo Berrettini to have a stop-start 2023 season, the Italian believes that the long time spent on the sidelines has made him rediscover the joy of being a professional tennis player.

Berrettini made an opening-round exit at the Australian Open, following which he was sidelined with injuries for nearly two months before returning to action at the Mexican Open. After registering no significant results in the events that followed, an abdominal injury forced him to pull out of the Monte-Carlo Masters before his third-round match against Holger Rune.

While his comeback in Stuttgart ended in the first round at the hands of compatriot Lorenzo Sonego, he put together a decent run at the Wimbledon Championships, defeating the likes of Sonego, Alex de Minaur, and Alexander Zverev before losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in the Round of 16.

Looking back on his struggles this season, Berrettini got philosophical in an interview with Italian media house Corriere Della Sera. He spoke about being plunged into a "darkness" that eventually helped him rediscover the joy of being a tennis professional.

"Deep down, even when I feel exhausted, this [competing on the court] is one of the things that makes me alive. Not being able to do so, in important appointments, made me know the darkness. And the darkness seems to have no end, it seems to swallow you because instead of standing still and breathing, you dig yourself an abyss," he explained.

"They were bad moments, which I did not like. But they were fundamental to make me rediscover the reasons for the joy of doing what I started as a child and that has occupied my whole life. I thought back to the origins to find myself. The darkness gave me the space to do it," he added.

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"What does he want in life? He's wasting it all" - Matteo Berrettini faces criticism from former Italian pro

Matteo Berrettini in action at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

While Matteo Berrettini is looking to build momentum ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, former Italian tennis pro Nicola Pietrangeli has criticized him for lacking ambition in life.

Pietrangeli, considered one of Italy's greatest men's tennis players of all time, has stated that there has been no clarity on what Berrettini is going through, physically and mentally.

"What does he want in life? He doesn't understand how lucky he is. He earns millions of euros and he's wasting it all. No I [don't] know what's going through his head. I don't think he knows it himself, no one knows. It's a pity, you have a fortune in your hand and you insist on making it complicated. The problem, as I said, is that you never we will know 100% what is happening to him. We can all think of one thing, but maybe it has nothing to do with it," he opined.

Berrettini is currently gearing up to participate in the Canadian Open, where he finds himself in a quarter of the draw alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Borna Coric. The Italian gets his campaign underway with a first-round clash against Gregoire Barrere.