Quick: I am a former Wimbledon finalist who is unseeded in this year’s men’s singles draw, and I’m a name to keep an eye on. Who am I? 

Nick Kyrgios? No chance, he didn’t get a wild card to Wimbledon, and, despite beginning his triumphant return to tour with a rare singles win (against Corentin Moutet (on grass)), he appears to be out again with injury, further challenging the tenuous notion that he is an active tennis player. No need to keep an eye here. Keep thinking.

Marin Cilic? Yes, even at age 37, he was 38th on the entry list for the tournament, which is quite impressive, and he is defending a ton of points here, since he pulled off that mighty upset of Jack Draper last year on his way to the fourth round. Shout-out to Marin Cilic, still playing solid tennis as all his contemporaries announce their retirements. But he’s not the one I had in mind either. Keep guessing. 

Matteo Berrettini? That’s the one.

Given the narrative chaos of Roland-Garros, it was easy to lose sight of this storyline, but let’s look back at what happened with the 30-year-old Italian, whose promising career appeared to have been blown up by a succession of injuries. He hadn’t played Roland-Garros for five years heading into this year’s tournament. Though he was more or less back to playing a normal tour schedule again, he still hadn’t had a statement win in over a year, unless you’re willing to count his 6–0, 6–0 victory over Daniil Medvedev in Madrid, which was more a statement on the comical psychological depths to which Meddy can descend rather than the quality of Berrettini’s tennis. And it had been a long time since Berrettini had made much noise at a major tournament, specifically.

But that is what he did in Paris. He won match after match—some of them easy, like his straight-set victory over No. 22 seed Arthur Rinderknech, and some of them tricky, like his match against Francisco Comesana, an emotional and physical gauntlet that culminated in a fifth-set tiebreak. Berrettini had to play for five hours and save two match points before getting over the line. Then came another win, over Juan Manuel Cerundolo (who had upset top seed Jannik Sinner, or had at least stood there while Sinner’s severe cramps did the work). And then Berrettini was euphoric, speaking with great emotion about how tennis was “the love of my life,” and what it was like to forge on through all the injuries, and so on. With that victory Berrettini secured a place in the quarterfinal, his first time going that deep at any major since 2022. And at No. 105, he was also the tournament’s lowest-ranked quarterfinalist in 19 years.

That quarterfinal wound up being a duel between two Italian Matteos, with Arnaldi across the net. Berrettini began to struggle with pain at the end of the competitive first set, then slowed down in the second set, took an injury time-out off court, and ultimately retired from the match, having decided that it was a pain in his left hip he had never felt before. Thus his inspired run came to a frustrating, anticlimactic end. But even so, the tournament still lent itself to a positive spin: His body held up to grueling clay rallies and multiple best-of-five match wins in a single week’s span. I wasn’t sure he’d ever be sturdy enough to handle either of those things again. After the retirement he shared that medical evaluations showed no significant muscle injuries. And now, despite resting up through the grass warm-ups, he’s been practicing at Wimbledon, looking healthy again.

And as we enter the grass-court major, it’s worth remembering what a talent Berrettini is on this surface, where he has won four titles. Arguably no other player on tour combines these disparate elements: one of the tour’s biggest serves plus a world-class backhand slice. So in a world of low bounces, he can rack up the aces and also keep the rally balls at roughly shin height for his unhappy opponents. 

Unlike last year, when he was the No. 32 seed (and still got upset in the first round), this year he will not enjoy the protection of seeding. But the field isn’t that scary, there are few players out there with his pedigree on the turf, and so long as he dodges the absolute scariest names in his opening round, he should be able to make a run. Look out for more signs of life in a career once presumed dead.