This unusual edition of Roland Garros in taking place in September and October of 2020 continues to showcase fresh faces and new talent. As we approach the end of the first week of competition in Paris, both draws are still filled with players who have never been past the first or second round of a Major in their careers — some having never even made it there. Consider Patricia Tig and Thiago Monteiro for instance, who have been ranked top-100 but never went past the second round of a Major before, or Barbora Krejcikova and Leylah Fernandez in the women’s draw, who are also in the third round for the first time, without ever having enjoyed a top-100 spot in the rankings in their careers.
Then, note players like Martina Trevisan, Hugo Gaston, Nadia Podoroska, and Sebastian Korda, Irina Bara, Daniel Elahi Galan, and Clara Burel, who have never won a match in the main draw of a Major until this week, but found themselves in a position to vie for a spot in the fourth round. Source: my knowledgeable friend Chris Oddo – @TheFanChild on Twitter, follow him if you are a tennis fan!
186th-ranked Daniel Altmaier belongs to the last group above. In fact, he had only played six tour-level matches in his career (2-4) prior to Roland Garros. He arrived to Paris for the qualifying rounds, not even knowing that he would have the opportunity to step on the court due to an injury that he suffered two weeks earlier at the Aix-en-Provence challenger, which forced him to retire from his semifinal match in the first set. He has battled his fair share of injuries in the past, including an elbow-related one in 2018 and shoulder problems later. It was after his arrival to Paris, on Friday before the qualifying competition, that the doctor finally cleared him to play.
Since then, he won six matches, losing only one set (none in the main draw), to find himself in the second week of the French Open. His latest victim was the 7th-seed Matteo Berrettini on Saturday on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The 22-year-old German behaved as if performing on a big-stage court was nothing unusual for him, starting the match with remarkable energy and positive body language, both of which he sustained throughout the match. After an early break to go up 3-0, he never looked back and pocketed the first set 6-2 in 31 minutes. Berrettini, for his part, struggled not only with his backhands early in the set (nine unforced errors on that wing for the set — by my count), but also found himself off balance constantly, even when he did not miss, due to the versatile, power-oriented, solid all-court play of his opponent. Side note: Not surprisingly considering his game, a close look at Altmaier’s past results shows that he can perform on to all surfaces.
In the second set, Berrettini was somewhat able to steady the ship, cutting down on his backhand errors (only four in this set). It helped that he was able to break serve to start the set when he hit a forehand winner to take the lead in the game and Altmaier drove his one-handed backhand too deep on break point. Berrettini protected his break lead by using his bread-and-butter play, the 1-2 punch, until he served for the set at 5-4. But before I get there, allow me to elaborate on his 1-2 punch for a minute.
I realize that Matteo is one of the most efficient users of the 1-2 punch on the ATP Tour. He places his serve well and reads the opponent’s return early enough for the most part to move in position for the next kill shot, usually coming on his forehand. Even when not putting the ball away, he often produces a good enough second shot to take charge of the point, either putting his opponent on the run for the ensuing rally, or approaching the net to finish it with a volley.
What presents a problem at times, and it came into question in this match, is that he seems to rely too much on his forehand for the second shot, unnecessarily going out of his way to hit one. By that I mean, when his opponent hits a better-than-expected return toward his ad corner, he tries to run-around his backhand to still hit an forehand at the cost of not having his feet set, thus out of balance, and either makes an error on that second shot or hits an ineffective one which then allows his opponent to take charge of the point, producing the opposite effect of what Matteo was aiming for.
In the 2-1 game of the second set on his serve and up 40-30, for example, he served wide and moved slightly inside the baseline, expecting a defensive return from Altmaier who moved well outside the court for the return. The German hit a surprisingly deep cross-court return. Instead of getting set up to drill his backhand down-the-line to the open court for a possible winner (his backhand is solid, no idea what he would insist that much on avoiding it), Matteo attempted to take several short and quick steps to his left, and somewhat backward (because he had to back up due to his positioning following the serve), because he was simply determined to hit a forehand. The resulting off-balance forehand from the ad corner, while still moving left and leaning back, landed wide, giving the point to Altmaier.
That was just one example, and he managed to hold serve in that game, so it didn’t cost him at the end in that case, which brings me back to the 5-4 game where he tried the same thing and paid for it dearly this time. At 15-0, he once again forced the issue by running around his backhand to hit an out-of-sorts forehand on the second shot. It fell short and Altmaier jumped on the opportunity, accelerating his backhand sharp cross-court, and eventually winning the point it at the net. Berrettini’s shoulders slumped, probably regretting his decision. He hit an ill-advised drop shot into the net in the next point to go down 15-30. Three points later, Altmaier hit a beautiful passing shot to earn the break.
It all turned dour from that point forward for Berrettini and his poor decision-making came back to haunt him again later in the set. Serving at 4-5 in the tiebreaker, he missed a drop shot badly into the net when he could have done several other things with that shot from the middle of the court. He saved the first set point with a big first serve but missed the return in the net in the second to lose tiebreaker 5-7 and go down by two sets.
One last glimmer of hope for the Italian appeared when he was up 15-40 on Altmaier’s serve, leading 2-1 in the third. It disappeared quickly when Altmaier stood strong to come back and hold serve. That was all she wrote apparently, because in the ensuing game, Berrettini missed two routine forehands in the net and added a forehand volley to the tally of errors when he sailed it wide. It was a blank break game for Altmaier, with Berrettini muttering in Italian at one point, “I should be ashamed of the way I’m playing.”
The last game adequately summarized the match for Berrettini. Altmaier, serving for the match at 5-4 and on the verge of a monumental accomplishment from his perspective, made two unforced errors in the game, possibly from a bit of nerves (though I cannot tell for sure from his demeanor), but Berrettini topped him with four of his own to lose the game and exit the French Open.
“I was struggling to find the right attitude, the right energy. I was nervous. When I tried to calm down, I was too calm. I was struggling every single aspect of the game. It was a really bad day. I actually almost won a set playing like this, feeling like this,” said the Italian after the match. Source: @RaviUbna on Twitter.
Altmaier, realizing the magnitude of the moment, thanked everyone he knows in three different languages during the post-match, on-court interview, including his parents in Russian, whom he has been known to credit in the past for having encouraged him to play sports at an early age. His next opponent is Pablo Carreno-Busta who is no stranger to latter stages of Majors, having just defeated Roberto Bautista-Agut to reach the fourth round for the second time in Paris (2017, lost in the quarterfinal to Rafael Nadal).