Berrettini slams fist on table after Rune's injury: "Prioritizing a player's results over their health is not the right way to comment on sports"

Matteo Berrettini has spoken out in recent hours about Holger Rune's serious injury in Stockholm.

Competing this week at the Vienna tournament, Berrettini will face Alexei Popyrin in the first round this Wednesday. The 29-year-old Italian player, ranked 59th in the ATP this week and no stranger to injuries in recent seasons, was a guest on Eurosport Italy in recent hours. He discussed Holger Rune's Achilles tendon rupture during his semifinal in Stockholm against Ugo Humbert last week.

"It's truly frightening. To think that an injury of this magnitude could be the best thing to happen to a 22-year-old player ranked 11th in the world is either in bad faith or shows a very limited understanding of this sport and sports in general.

Competitive maturity, or the lack thereof, is gained over time, through defeats, victories, matches lost on match points, or perhaps wins achieved while playing poorly.

This is an injury that can radically change a player's life, let alone their career at this level. I always listen and hardly ever comment, but what I've heard is madness.

I understand that people always want to talk, to express their opinions on all topics, but hearing that 'the curtain has fallen' without any compassion or sensitivity, as if it were a balloon popping on a merry-go-round, sends shivers down my spine.

Behind this injury, there is suffering, mental and physical, doubts, and moments so dark they could compromise the mental health of a very young boy.

Maybe I'm getting carried away, maybe I know what it means to see certain things slip away without even having a chance to try to stop them, maybe I know how difficult it is to recover from an injury, but I'm sure that upon reflection, you too will realize that these words don't reflect who you are.

I might be wrong, but I believe the necessary change in Italian sports culture also involves this—how things are told and how certain topics are analyzed.

Prioritizing a player's potential results over their health is probably not the right way to watch and comment on sports. That said, Holger will come back stronger than before, but believe me, no athlete in the world would want to suffer such an injury, even if told there was a small chance to improve their career-best ranking," Berrettini stated.