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US Open star's 'heartwarming' gesture for shattered rival

Riley Morgan
·Sports Reporter
·4-min read
Matteo Berrettini (pictured right) redirecting applause to his injured opponent (pictured left) Oscar Otte getting attended for an injury.
Matteo Berrettini (pictured right) showed class after his win over the injured Oscar Otte (pictured left) at the US Open. (Image: Getty Images/US Open)

Italian star Matteo Berrettini has been praised after a classy gesture following his round of 16 win over Oscar Otte at the US Open.

Berrettini was leading in the fourth set 5-2 and serving for the match, which had become inevitable after his German opponent injured himself.

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Otte's hopes were dashed when he suffered a wrist injury at 1-2 down in the fourth set after stumbling awkwardly after an overhead smash.

The German somersaulted backwards and crashed down heavily on his wrist, before calling for a medical timeout and receiving treatment for the issue.

Incredibly, Otte managed to hold serve after the medical timeout, but failed to win another game in the rest of the match.

But, after a number of controversies during the US Open with late MTOs and delays, Otte chose to battle it out and refused to retire.

And in a classy moment from the Italian, on match point, he redirected the crowds applause towards Otte.

Moments later at the net, Berrettini embraced the German before stepping back and applauding him for finishing the match.

Fans were quick to praise the Italian, who is quickly becoming an extremely gracious and popular athlete on tour.

Oscar Otte's devastating fall ends US Open hope

Unfortunately, early in the fourth set a devastating injury wrecked the World No.144's hopes of causing a huge upset against sixth seed Berrettini, who booked a quarter-final berth with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win.

It was an incident-packed match for Otte, who bravely fought on through a wrist injury that was causing him obvious discomfort.

The 28-year-old also had a crazy mishap in the first set, where he raced to retrieve a Berrettini shot before toppling over the net onto the Italian's side of the court.

Berrettini's win sees him return to the last eight at Flushing Meadows for the second time in three years, despite having to overcome a second set wobble.

Oscar Otte (pictured) falls over the net while playing against Matteo Berrettini at the US Open.
Oscar Otte (pictured) falls over the net while playing against Matteo Berrettini at the US Open. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images) (KENA BETANCUR via Getty Images)

As well as his classy gesture for Otte at the end of the match, Berrettini was full of praise for his opponent afterwards as well.

“We can talk about the first part of the match and he got injured, and there wasn’t a match anymore,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview.

“I said to him that he had a great run and he didn’t deserve to end like this. Now it’s tough to talk about the match, but I really enjoyed the support from the beginning.

"There are a lot of people that really support me. Let’s talk about the atmosphere that was really great.”