Alexei Popyrin decided to seek a reset and a refresh amid his 2026 challenges \u2013 and the break appeared to have done him the world of good as he returned to down a celebrated Roman gladiator in his home arena at the Italian Open.<\/p>\n
The Australian No.2 reckoned his comprehensive 6-2 6-3 victory over former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini on his home Campo Centrale court at the Foro Italico on Thursday was an important win in a difficult campaign.<\/p>\n
Silencing the home fans while playing one of his most solid matches of the year was a welcome tonic for the 26-year-old Sydneysider, who has dipped outside the world’s top 50.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Considering the year I’ve had, and everything that’s been going on this year with me off the court, it was a pretty good performance,” smiled Popyrin after his fifth win of the season, in which he’s been plagued by calf and glute issues and spoken of mental burnout.<\/p>\n
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“Matteo is an unbelievable player, and it’s never easy to play in front of a home crowd like that, so considering the circumstances, it was a very good performance for myself, really solid from my side.”<\/p>\n
The key, he felt, was the break he had taken after his first-round exit at the Madrid Masters against American qualifier Martin Damm, his third-straight loss.<\/p>\n
“I took a couple of weeks off after that, and just decided not to play the week in between,” said Popyrin.<\/p>\n
“When you go through these kind of dips I’ve been through for the last couple of months, you tend to overthink things on the court, and it just all becomes a big jumble.<\/p>\n
“So I felt I just had to just reset myself, try and get back to playing a little bit free and it worked pretty well today.”<\/p>\n
En route to his first Masters 1000 win of the year, he snuffed out an early break point in the third game – the only one he gave up in the whole match \u2013 before reeling off four games in a row to take the first set.<\/p>\n
He then broke in the sixth game of the second and didn’t flinch even when Berrettini got the crowd animated by saving three match points on Popyrin’s serve.<\/p>\n
“Playing in front of a crowd like this puts a little bit of extra pressure on, so that’s why I’m really chuffed with myself about being able to handle the situation,” said Popyrin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Being 5-3 up and 40-love up and getting back to deuce on those match points, in previous months, I probably would have folded there and lost the game and made it a really tough battle, so I was happy I got through.”<\/p>\n