Alexei Popyrin decided to seek a reset and a refresh amid his 2026 woes -- 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.
Australia's No.2 Popyrin 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.
Silencing the home fans while playing one of his most solid matches of a year in which he's slumped to his lowest ranking for 20 months was a welcome tonic for the 26-year-old Sydneysider.
Through in two ✌️
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 7, 2026
The moment @AlexeiPopyrin99 defeated Berrettini 6-2, 6-3 to advance into Round 2 in Rome#IBI26 pic.twitter.com/YRnzdjonAk
"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 only his fifth win of a troubled 2026 in which he's been plagued by calf and glute issues as well as complaining of mental burn-out.
"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."
The key, he felt, was the break he had taken after his disappointing first-round exit at the Madrid Masters against US qualifier Martin Damm, his third-straight loss.
"I took a couple of weeks off after that, and just decided not to play the week in between.
"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.
"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."
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 - before reeling off four games in a row to take the first set.
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.
"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.
"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."
