If only the founders of modern tennis could have witnessed the scene outside the gates of the United States Open on Saturday. They might not have recognized the trappings of their once-genteel sport.
For there was Giovanni Bartocci, 41, a self-described “crazy Italian guy,” decorated in tattoos and piercings, his long hair perched in a bun above his shaggy beard and sunglasses, screaming, “Daje, Matte,” or “Go, Matte,” into a bullhorn.
Just over the fence, Matteo Berrettini, the eighth-ranked men’s tennis player in the world, could hear his friend shouting encouragement in their shared Romanesco dialect as Berrettini completed a straight-sets victory over Casper Ruud.
“Nobody didn’t hear him,” Berrettini said. “It was pretty loud today.”
As the United States Open enters its second week without fans in attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic, Bartocci, a restaurateur who met his own 2020-style misfortune even before the pandemic was declared, refuses to sit at home and watch on television.
Every time Berrettini plays on a court within earshot of a booming voice, Bartocci will be there, as he was on Saturday, pacing nervously while following the points on the giant scoreboard perched above the Court 17 stadium. Bartocci cannot see inside, but he knows Berrettini hears him.
“Because of that kid,” Bartocci said, gesturing over the fence, where Berrettini was beating Ruud, “I was able to live the last seven months without a job. What he did for my restaurant, that is why I am here to support him no matter what.”
A year ago, Bartocci and Berrettini were the toast of the U.S. Open — Berrettini as the breakout star reaching the semifinals before he lost to the eventual champion, Rafael Nadal. Bartocci shared the stage, sitting prominently in Berrettini’s box during most of the matches.
The gregarious owner of an Italian restaurant called Via Della Pace in the East Village of Manhattan, Bartocci certainly cut a unique figure for a tennis fan, and the television cameras could barely turn away from him.
When Berrettini was asked in an interview after an early victory where he would celebrate, he revealed that he was headed to Via Della Pace, as many of the Italian players did. That was before a fire shut down the restaurant in February.
“It was the Italian players’ lounge,” said Corrado Tschabuschnig, the manager for Berrettini and several other players.
Within hours of Berrettini’s on-court comment last year, Bartocci received a call from his business partner, Marco Ventura, who reported that a crowd was gathering at the restaurant, some with oversize tennis balls hoping to get an autograph from Berrettini and the other Italian players. And because of all of the publicity, which mushroomed as Berrettini advanced through the draw, the restaurant more than doubled its business in the ensuing months.
But on the afternoon of Feb. 10, Bartocci was at the New York Open in Long Island, a guest of the Italian player Paolo Lorenzi, when he received another urgent call from Ventura: A fire had broken out in the building that housed the restaurant. It was bad.
Bartocci hopped on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and rushed through the rain to Manhattan. When he got there, the block was swarmed by firefighters, trucks and hoses. The fire had started behind a wall, Bartocci said, and although there were no flames inside the restaurant, the firefighters had to rip through the kitchen to find the source. Everything in it was destroyed, and the restaurant was forced to close, at least in that location.
Bartocci said that by the time the investigation was completed and claims were filed, the pandemic had been declared. He said the insurance company told him that because of the pandemic he would have had to close anyway, and its payout was not enough to reopen the restaurant.
What’s more, Bartocci has an E2 visa for investors, which would have renewed automatically as long as the business was open. But now it is set to expire in October, and he may have to leave the United States.
“That place was everything to me,” he said. “I would rather my house burned down. What is a house, a place to sleep? The restaurant was my life. But you know, I am lucky. So many people, they lose more than me. I have my health, and my friends and family are OK, too. I will be OK.”
After word of the fire spread in the Italian tennis community, players reached out to Bartocci to express sympathy. They included Fabio Fognini, the Italian star who once argued with the restaurateur during a match because he was supporting Fognini’s opponent. (Bartocci told him, in Italian, “Shut up and play.”)
Berrettini hinted that he, and perhaps other players, might try to help Bartocci and Ventura reopen the restaurant, maybe in another location.
“I’m really sorry because he had really bad luck, twice,” Berrettini said. “For the fire and the virus.”
Bartocci shrugs. His support for Berrettini is about their friendship, and for what Berrettini did for him in the past, he said. When Berrettini qualified for the year-end championships in London, he invited Bartocci, who of course caused a stir in that city, too, for his vociferous support of his friend (although he did not bring the bullhorn to the O2 Arena).
Bartocci salvaged that from the restaurant. He had used it for songs and chants during games played by his beloved Lazio soccer team. The restaurant also served as headquarters for the New York Lazio supporters club.
Bartocci brings the same kind of passion to tennis, as if he is screaming for Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
He took the megaphone to Lorenzi’s first-round loss to Brandon Nakashima on Court 8 last Monday. Locked outside the gates, Bartocci dragged a police barrier to a tree, climbed up and perched on a limb as he watched a corner of the court from there.
Berrettini’s first match last week was in Louis Armstrong Stadium, but there is no access for the public outside that stadium. Court 17 is the perfect spot, and on Saturday, another Italian tennis fan arrived just before the match began.
Alessandro Artoni, 25, a shipping executive from Mantua, Italy, who now lives in Baltimore, came to New York for the weekend. He recognized Bartocci from last year’s tournament and introduced himself.
“Everyone in Italy knows Giovanni,” Artoni said.
Next up for Berrettini is 10th-seeded Andrey Rublev on Monday afternoon in the fourth round. But as the tournament progresses, most of the matches are funneled into the bigger stadiums and this one is scheduled for Armstrong. But Bartocci has surrendered.
“Hey,” he asked a reporter. “If Matteo makes it to the final, can they put it on Court 17?”
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