Paris, June 4 (IANS) After a hip injury ended Matteo Berrettini’s Roland Garros campaign after the Italian retired midway through his quarter-final match with Matteo Arnaldi, the Italian conceded it’s the worst feeling ever but admitted, “It’s the right thing to do,” as it’s not the last tournament he was playing in his career.

Trailing 7-5, 5-2, the former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini was forced to retire with a hip injury, a result that made the 104th-ranked Arnaldi just the second man to win a Roland-Garros quarterfinal by retirement in the Open era.

“I’m the last one that wants to retire. I’m so tired of it. I just don’t want to do it, but sometimes you have to do it,” Berrettini said, as quoted by the ATP tour. “A lot of players have done it in the past, and it’s the worst feeling ever, but it’s the right thing to do, because it’s not the last tournament I’m going to play in my life, and I have to think about my future. I have to think about my recovery.”

Shortly after losing a gruelling 76-minute first set, Berrettini left the court for a medical timeout down 2-1 in the second set, and a love hold seemed to steady him briefly. Though he bravely battled on for three more games, the former world No.6 had nothing left to give, and reluctantly pulled the plug after exactly two hours.

“They told me that the area was really sore and really painful. So I just tried, but then the pain was too much, and I hope that I didn’t do any serious damage. I just have to wait and see in the next days for the scans and everything to see what it is.

“Hopefully it’s nothing too bad. I’m obviously disappointed, but I think if I kept playing, I would have done way worse and probably the recovery time would have been longer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other choices than retire,” Berrettini said.

The former World No. 6, who was playing his first major quarter-final since the 2022 US Open,

began the tournament at World No. 105 and is now No. 48 in the ATP Live Rankings.

“It’s going to be tough, but that’s the mentality that I like to — that’s how I like to approach these two weeks. And of course I’m disappointed; I’m sad, but I’m also proud of the way I fought through this tournament,” the Italian said.

–IANS

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