Flour, water and fist pumps. Those three ingredients, provided by an unlikely source of inspiration, are giving a meatball-sized boost to Italian tennis at the US Open.
One plate of pasta at a time, one point at a time…
That could be the slogan of East Village eatery Via Della Pace, the restaurant where you can find Matteo Berrettini, Lorenzo Musetti, Lorenzo Sonego and many other Italians and their teams dining on carbonara and rigatoni all’Amatriciana as they unwind after grinding through matches at Flushing Meadows.
Meet Giovanni Bartocci, a wild-eyed, tattooed, and bearded character who has become a quasi-savior for Italians at the US Open. He’s also become Matteo Berrettini’s right-hand man, and sits in the Italian’s box during all his matches at the US Open.
Asked how many of Berrettini’s matches he has been able to catch, he replies quickly.
“All of them.”
“You wouldn’t miss one?” I ask.
“No.”
It is this loyalty that makes Bartocci a talisman for the Italians who receive his support. Berrettini met him in 2018 and the pair have been tight ever since.
“I feel like family with him,” Berrettini said. “He's a really good guy. He treats me well. Even before—when I met him, before I was the player that I am right now. He has a huge heart.”
Giovanni and his partner Marco Ventura have had their share of hardships—the restaurant was destroyed by an early morning fire in February of 2020. When that devastating news broke, Berrettini was there to lend his support.
The Italian, who will face Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals on Tuesday in New York, says he and Bartocci share a similar story.
“I try to help him as much as I can—when his restaurant caught fire, and obviously [when] COVID happened, [when] he lost his visa—but now he's back on track,” the Italian said. “We have been through tough moments, both of us for our careers, and now we are getting better together. It's special to have him there, and he has obviously a great relationship with my family, with my coaches, with my team.
“He's family, and I'm really happy that he's here.”
This year, the up-and-coming Musetti and his coach, Simone Tartarini, were brought into the ever-expanding fold at Via Della Pace, which started long before Berrettini with Italian players Tomas Fabbiano, Karin Knapp, Stefano Travaglia and Paolo Lorenzi.
Tartarini says the restaurant, for him, is a slice of heaven.
“For me, Giovanni is No.1,” he says. “To stay with Giovanni every dinner in the restaurant is to stay in the family. In my house, it’s the same.”
Once Musetti, who reached the third round at the US Open, had a taste of the food and the atmosphere at Via Della Pace, he was hooked.
“We went there one time and we never went anywhere else,” he told USOpen.org. “Because the mood and the place was really nice.
“The food, it’s really Italian food so I was feeling at home. Even the music was always Italian music, so it was a little memory of Italy during our stay in New York.”
Bartocci, known as “Gio” to the Italians, says he instantly clicked with Berrettini when they were introduced in 2018. His US Open experience begins with qualifying, which he calls “the real US Open.”
“I’ve always been here for the first week, supporting these kids,” he says. “When I say the first week, for me it’s the qualie week. That’s the real Open; it’s open and people can come and support for free—it’s an amazing thing.
“Then one day Matteo came in 2018, to the restaurant. We had a chat, we became very good friends and I have supported him since that day.”
What does Gio like so much about Berrettini? Don’t get him started.
“His mental power,” he says, gesticulating. “I can tell you ‘Oh his serve, his forehand, oh my God’—No! It’s the guy, he’s strong in his head.”
A boxing lover at heart, Giovanni loves the pugilistic element of tennis. When we meet behind the US Open practice courts, he is wearing a Mike Tyson t-shirt and is quick to talk of the boxing-tennis parallel.
He would be just as quick to jump into the ring and go to battle if his friend ever needed it.
Berrettini, big and burly as they come on tour, can handle himself in the arena. But he can always use home-style cooking and the type of support that only a friend can give.
Likewise for Bartocci. With these two, the feelings are mutual.
“I’m really lucky to know Matteo,” Giovanni says. “I’m really lucky because he’s such a great person. I’m lucky that he did what he did for us. He gave [Via Della Pace] a big shout out in 2019, and he’s doing the same now. I don’t want to get emotional. But the guy is special, the guy has a very good heart.
“He’s a sweetheart, you know, and I would go to battle with him.”
