The unruly crowds at Melbourne Park found a way to become part of the story when Matteo Berrettini created tennis history by reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open with an epic five-set victory over Gael Monfils.
The seventh seed overcame the French 17th seed in their quarter-final, 6-4 6-4 3-6 3-6 6-2, to become the first Italian man to reach the last four.
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The 2020 Wimbledon finalist will now face 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on Friday for a place in Sunday’s final.
“It feels unbelievable (to be the first Italian), hopefully there will be a second one tomorrow with Jannik Sinner,” Berrettini said during his on-court interview.
“I was really happy with myself, it was a great fight with Gael, a great match, a lot of emotions.
“I had a couple of break points and I couldn’t make them … like what happened with (Carlos) Alcaraz (Garfia in the third round) as well, I was leading and then they started to play better.
“I thought I had him in the third set but then I found myself in the fifth. I really fought hard and I put everything into the court.”
While his effort was commendable, one member of the crowd went out of their way to heckle the Italian from the stands, with what sounded like a “f— you’, which seemed to be in reference to the star’s win over Alcaraz.
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The world No.7 didn’t seem happy with it and stopped and looked over at where the noise came from.
“I didn’t hear,” Berrettini said. “It’s full of people and I like it — some of them are not really tennis fans I think.”
As other members of the crowd applauded his comments, the quarter-finalist said: “But it is what it is. You cannot control everybody. I think to be respectful is something you have todo anyway, but I mean it’s fine. I win. I’m happy.”
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The crowd was warned during the match by the umpire to tone down some of the behaviour.
Early in the fifth set, umpire James Keothavong told spectators: “If you don’t want to watch, please leave,” as they made noise while Monfils was trying to serve.
A section of the crowd was warned by security over the incident.
Regardless of the crowd’s reaction, Berrettini had every right to be proud of his second five set win at the tournament.
The 25-year-old Italian broke against Monfils in the first game of the deciding set. He eventually went up a double break and finished things off against Monfils, who couldn’t repeat his third and fourth set heroics.
Monfils and Berrettini famously played a thrilling five-setter in 2019 in the quarter-finals of the US Open.
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