We all remember him for his historic experience with our Matteo Berrettini, the two reached the top and paved the way for all of Italian tennis. Now they have started again with different paths, Berrettini has Francisco Roig as coach while Vincenzo Santopadre is working with the young French talent Luca Van Assche.
Santopadre himself gave an interesting interview to Puntodebreak’s microphones in these hours and discussed many topics. Here are his words: “Luca and I started in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. Then he went to America with his historic coach Yannick and we split the weeks in two.
They spoke very well about him to me and the truth is that both he and his coach are people of great values, it is a pleasure for me to help him and this project intrigues me. He is very good at defending, he has an excellent backhand and has different variations, he is a very interesting tennis player.
At the moment we have no goals other than to improve with the game. Surface? Well, he won the junior Roland Garros and so we certainly know that the clay is very welcome to him. But for me he is a complete tennis player and in 2-3 years he will be able to compete on all surfaces.
At the moment he is not at Alcaraz’s level, but Luca still has to turn 20 and has big margins for improvement. French tennis is growing.” The journalist cannot help but talk about Italian tennis and its constant growth, Santopadre explains: “Well, everyone asks me that.
It must be said that there is a system behind this growth and it wasn’t all done overnight. At the moment Italy is the country everyone is looking at. All this is incredible, we have many players and many athletes and now we need to do it continuously.”
Regarding Sinner’s victory in Australia, Santopadre reveals: “Yes, it’s true, I thought that Matteo Berrettini could have been in his place. On the other hand, it’s a shame, we came close with Slam semi-finals and then the final at Wimbledon.
However, things always happen for a reason, before Matteo there was also Fognini who helped the movement grow. However, I believe that Matteo was a source of inspiration for those coming from behind. However, I am very happy with Sinner’s victory in Melbourne, he is an exceptional guy and I know his coach Simone Vagnozzi very well. I hope that Matteo can also win something important.”
