Matteo Berrettini wins and finds his smile again. The clay court season has just started with the Montecarlo tournament, and after injuries, eliminations and controversies, the Roman tennis player takes an easy and light victory in the first round, but heavy on a personal level.

"The energy was over, now the tank is full: I just have to work and the results will come", said the 26-year-old blue, No. 22 in the world, who made his debut on the fields of the Principality against the American Maxime Cressy, No. 38 Atp. and takes the turn in two sets, 6-4 6-2.

Berrettini achieved his first victory in Montecarlo, where he is playing for only the third time and where he had never won a match yet. Now Berrettini will face Francisco Cerundolo, who somewhat surprisingly beat the British Cameron Norrie (11th seeded) with partials of 6-3, 6-4. A first victory in Montecarlo and without history in two sets (all in just under an hour and a half) which relaunches the ambitions of Berrettini who had never gone beyond the first match here: in 2019 he had lost in the first round against Dimitrov, in the 2021 in the second round (for him the debut) against Davidovich Fokina.

"I'm the first to be happy - said the blue -. The start of the year was tough for many reasons, but I'm here doing what I love. It's not easy to face Cressy, he plays at a high level, I'm happy with how I played. I'm satisfied, with my team I did a great job but I need to put matches and victories in my legs. I love playing here. Looking at the results, I can't complain, I had an operation on my right hand and I can't "It was easy to recover after so many injuries. I hope to have a good season on clay, I'm willing and physically strong: now I just have to work, the results will come."

With Berrettini in the draw there are four other Azzurri: Jannik Sinner, seventh seeding favourite, Lorenzo Musetti, sixteenth seed, Lorenzo Sonego, competing thanks to a wild card, and Luca Nardi, the latter promoted from the qualifiers. All were drawn in the upper part of the draw, the one presided over by Novak Djokovic, who has just returned to the world throne, and Daniil Medvedev, the player in the best form at the moment. Before taking the field, the South Tyrolean Sinner smiles for the best ranking achieved: thanks to the 80 points expired in Holger Rune, the boy from Sesto Pusteria records his new record by climbing to eighth position in the ATP world rankings. Stable Musetti, Berrettini and Sonego, Cecchinato climbs up almost 20 positions thanks to the semifinals at Estoril. With eighth place, Jannik becomes the fifth best Italian ever in the ranking, the fourth if we only consider the Open era. Ahead of him now there are only Nicola Pietrangeli (n. 3, but not counted in the Open era), Adriano Panatta (n. 4), Matteo Berrettini (n. 6), Corrado Barazzutti (n. 7). Without the big Spaniards like Nadal and Alcaraz in Monte Carlo, the man to beat is undoubtedly the Greek number 3 in the world Stefanos Tsitsipas called to defend the title.