Former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini has split from supermodel girlfriend Melissa Satta after what he described as an ‘intense’ relationship.
The 27-year-old star has endured a difficult period coinciding with his relationship with Satta.
First spotted together in January 2023, the relationship raised concerns about distractions for the tennis star given that Satta had the reputation of being a ‘man-eater’ in some parts of the Italian media.
Berrettini had to issue several calls for privacy and admitted struggled with depression over his persistent injury woes through a tough 2023 campaign.
“Melissa Satta and I are no longer together,” Berrettini said.
“What I can say is that we had a beautiful, intense relationship and we have great respect for each other.
“I won’t go beyond this, I don’t like sharing my private life too much. Nothing special happened.
“I must thank her for this period we lived together very intensely despite all the difficulties.”
Satta, who has been a successful swimwear model and television presenter, has a history of dating sports stars after previously being connected to football star Kevin Prince Boateng and a long-term relationship with former Inter Milan striker Christian Vieri.
She slammed online trolls and media critics for the way they covered Berrettini’s injuries and dredged up stories about her past relationships and comments to the media.
“It was something that had been going on for months when our story became known in January,’ she told Vanity Fair.
“[They say] ‘Berrettini doesn’t win because Satta is distracting him, she’s too demanding’… But I held back.
“[This has happened before] with my ex-husband [Boateng] who suffered from pubalgia.
“Even there they attacked me saying that we had too much sex and that was the cause of his physical problems.
“[The injury Berrettini has] is an injury in the same place as the one in 2021, when I didn’t know him. But in any case – do I really have to answer to these people?”
Berrettini admitted that he had been through it with his struggles on and off the court in 2023.
“There are many, many reasons why I was really sad,” Berrettini said.
“First of all, obviously because I couldn’t compete, which is the thing that I love to do.
“Then there was another thing that came in. There was that I wasn’t enjoying the process of coming back, that it was, like, kind of like the key before. Unfortunately I had many injuries, but I always found, like, kind of, not the joy, but, you know, the challenge of coming back and feeling kind of like, okay, now I put the work in.
“And I wasn’t feeling that. When I was feeling something on my body, I was really struggling. I went down. Mentally I wasn’t ready to face the challenge.
“Then many things happen, and I think it was just really important for me to stop and, you know, like, think a little bit and take my time. Because the body and the mind, they go together.”