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Nicola Pietrangeli rages against modern tennis and Matteo Berrettini being in the tabloids
Italian tennis legend Nicola Pietrangeli has railed against the state of modern tennis and the stars of his nation.
Pietrangeli was highly critical of former Italian No 1 Matteo Berrettini for both attracting tabloid headlines and not moving very well on court.
(Please note quotes have been translated from Italian)
A recent interview with a notable Italian sports publication has attracted a lot of attention in Italy and beyond.
He suggested that Berrettini should heed the warnings of the career of Filippo Volandri, who failed to live up to the hype after notching a big win over Roger Federer.
READ MORE: Matteo Berrettini feels that he will be a Grand Slam contender in 2023
Pietrangeli bemoaned the lack of finesse in modern tennis which he feels is now dominated by super-athletes.
He took shots at Berrettini after tabloid reporters spotted him with Melissa Satta after his elimination from the Australian Open.
“It seems to me that Matteo is devoting himself more to advertising than to tennis. I wouldn’t like him to end up like Volandri, who after beating Federer in Rome, didn’t do anything again. He’s a good guy, he reminds me a bit of Pannatta. Very handsome from the waist up, but his legs don’t move as they should,” said the former Roland Garros champion In a conversation with the Gazzetta dello Sport.
He would label Jannik Sinner as the best of the Italian group but also admitted that he doesn’t like the style of the 6’2″ son of San Candido.
Pietrangeli would give an endorsement to one Italian player above the others as he revealed that he enjoys Lorenzo Musetti’s tennis.
He feels that tennis has become a brutish and ‘ugly’ sport with too much emphasis on physicality and power.
“The world has changed and tennis too, and it has done it for the worse. It’s an uglier sport. Before, if you were talented, you had to work physically; now if you’re not a great athlete, you can’t even consider getting on a court” he said before adding of Jannik Sinner.
“He is the best Italian at the moment, although he has a very different style from mine. Above all, he has a great advantage, and that is that he seems much more German than Italian. The one I like the most is Lorenzo Musetti, his tennis is the most beautiful.”
READ MORE: Does Matteo Berrettini have a new love interest?
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