Matteo Berrettini Stunned by Bizarre Umpire Call in Early Italian Open Exit

The Italian Open crowd erupted in absolute disbelief this week as hometown favorite Matteo Berrettini suffered a crushing first-round defeat to Alexei Popyrin. This was a loss heavily marred by one of the most unusual umpiring controversies in recent tennis memory.

Trailing by a set and fighting desperately to turn the momentum in front of a raucous Foro Italico audience, Berrettini appeared to have secured a crucial break point opportunity. Instead, a vibration dampener flying off his opponent’s racket triggered an exceedingly rare “let” call, erasing the Italian’s hard-earned advantage, derailing his mental focus, and effectively ending his campaign in Rome before it ever really began.

Vibration dampener woke up and chose drama#IBI26 pic.twitter.com/5inxhdySse

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 7, 2026

Chair umpire Aurelie Tourte made the controversial decision to halt play mid-rally after spotting the tiny piece of rubber skidding across the clay, a ruling that left Berrettini furious at the net and the passionate Roman crowd relentlessly booing the chair.

As the argument dragged on and the crowd’s whistles and jeers echoed through the stadium, Popyrin approached the net. Having retrieved his rogue dampener, the Australian offered a surprisingly candid assessment of the situation, showing a level of sportsmanship rarely seen in the heat of a Masters 1000 battle.

Popyrin’s hands were effectively tied. The umpire made the call while the ball was still in play, meaning the point was legally dead before the Australian’s error. Despite the mutual understanding between the two competitors, the ruling stood.

The point was replayed. The break point vanished. From that moment on, the fight seemed to leave Berrettini. The emotional toll of the argument, compounded by his ongoing struggles to find a match rhythm, proved too steep a mountain to climb. Popyrin comfortably held his serve, secured another break, and cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory, silencing the Foro Italico and handing the Italian a bitter early exit.

The letter of the law

The debate over the call immediately sparked conversations across the tennis world. In the commentary booth, analysts were quick to point out just how bizarre the sequence of events was. Vibration dampeners fly off rackets frequently on the professional tour, but they almost always bounce backward or off to the side, completely out of the players’ lines of sight.

In this specific instance, the bright color of the dampener and its trajectory toward the net made it an unavoidable hazard. According to the ATP rulebook, a let can be called if a foreign object enters the playing area and creates a distraction or a safety issue. Technically, Tourte applied the rule correctly. Because she saw the object land in the middle of the court during a live ball, she was obligated to stop the point.

However, being technically right does little to soothe the sting for a player like Berrettini, who felt he had fairly won the exchange before the object even registered as a distraction. It was a brutal stroke of bad luck for a player who has had far too much of it in recent years.

The broader context for Matteo Berrettini

This early exit is a devastating blow for Matteo Berrettini, who has been desperately trying to string together consistent results after a brutal stretch of physical setbacks. Just a few years ago, the heavy-hitting Roman was a fixture in the latter stages of Grand Slams, utilizing his massive serve and blistering forehand to reach the Wimbledon final and establish himself as a top-tier threat on any surface.

But a series of injuries—ranging from abdominal tears to hand surgeries—have completely derailed his trajectory, dropping him to the fringes of the top 100. Returning to the clay courts this spring, there were brief flashes of the old magic. In Monte Carlo, Berrettini sent shockwaves through the draw by handing former world number one Daniil Medvedev a historic double-bagel defeat in a 50-minute masterclass.

For a moment, it looked like the Berrettini of old had returned. But that monumental high was quickly followed by frustrating lows. He suffered an early loss to young Brazilian Joao Fonseca, dropped a second-round match to Dino Prizmic in Madrid, and bowed out in the quarterfinals of a Challenger event in Cagliari to Hubert Hurkacz.

Coming into Rome, the hope was that the home crowd could serve as the ultimate remedy for his confidence issues. Instead, he departs the Foro Italico with a straight-sets loss to a player who entered the tournament with a dismal 4-12 record on the year.

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