A 24-3 run that started with a title in Belgrade, Serbia, has carried through to the Wimbledon semifinals, where the seventh-seeded Berrettini will face 14th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland on Friday for a spot in the men’s singles final.
It has been a long, steep climb for Berrettini since he arrived at a tennis club in Rome at age 14 and was awed by the credentials of the coach he met: Vincenzo Santopadre, whose career-high singles ranking had been 100th.
“I started with him when I was 14, and thinking about being top 100 was for me something crazy,” Berrettini said in an interview.