Like taking candy from a… Berrettini? ATP Tour stars share their Halloween memories

  • Posted: Oct 30, 2024

Millions of children (and some parents!) across the globe will head ‘trick-or-treating’ on Thursday evening to celebrate Halloween. Hopefully they will have more luck than Matteo Berrettini did when the ATP Tour star was out hunting for candy as a child in his hometown of Rome.

“I lived in [an area] where it was safe for kids to go around and just bother people,” the Italian recalled to ATPTour.com. “One funny story. We had a bag full of candy and stuff, and we rang at a door. A lady opened it, and we said, ‘Trick or treat?’ She didn’t say anything, she just took something from our bag and closed the door. I don’t think she understood, it wasn’t us giving to her, but we were shocked.”

Berrettini remembers dressing up once as a ninja, and another time as a vampire in his bid to secure sweet treats from his neighbours. For the Italian’s ATP Tour rival Grigor Dimitrov, there was only ever one costume at the front of his mind.

“I grew up in the States. I think we were in California. I dressed as Batman, I’ve always liked Batman,” said the Bulgarian. “I grew up in a very small town, only 2,000 people, so we had trick-or-treat and we could almost have literally gone to every door. I remember it well, it was a lot of fun.”

Alexander Zverev says he also never lacked for enthusiasm in donning a Halloween costume as a kid in his home city of Hamburg. The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings is now a little hazy on the details, however.

“We did celebrate Halloween. We went around the houses and got candy, dressed up, but I can’t remember my favourite costume,” said Zverev. “I’m old already, it was 20 years ago. I actually really dressed up though, put paint on my face and everything. I just don’t remember what it was.”

So which other ATP Tour stars have fond memories of ‘spooky season’? Not Flavio Cobolli or Alex de Minaur, it seems…

“I hate Halloween, because I’m afraid. I don’t like horror, so I don’t like Halloween,” said Cobolli, who despite his fears does count a ghost among his diverse selection of tattoos. “I [particularly] don’t like skeletons.”

De Minaur joked: “I had no childhood. I literally had no childhood. I never celebrated Halloween as a child. In fact, probably the most I’ve enjoyed Halloween has been leaving candy outside the house for actual kids now who are trick-or-treating.”

[ATP APP]

At just 19 years old, Jakub Mensik does not have to look to far back to remember his childhood. If it’s a Halloween costume memory he is searching for, however, he will have to create one in the future.

“In Czechia it’s not that big a tradition, but of course it’s a really great atmosphere,” said the #NextGenATP star. “[It signifies] that winter is coming. It’s really great to have some spooky stories. I never dressed up, but I will in the future maybe.”

The ‘home’ of Halloween is arguably the United States. While Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe both used to set out with the sole intention of satisfying their respective sweet teeth, trick-or-treating was not the only aspect of their standard American Halloween.

“We used to do a lot of trick-or-treating and definitely take advantage of the houses that left the candy out in front of the door,” said Paul. “I remember the first time we could go without our parents was fun. It used to get a little later, and you probably did something you weren’t supposed to do, but nothing really crazy.

“I was Spider-Man a couple of times. I visited college on my college recruiting visit in North Carolina and it was Halloween. I think I dressed up as a football player or something, but that was definitely one of the better Halloweens for me.”

Tommy Paul/Frances Tiafoe

Photo Credit: Kate Brinksman/ATP Tour

Tiafoe reminisced: “Halloween was crazy man. I used to go to some of my homeboy’s houses and dress crazy. I dressed as a tennis player a lot. I dressed as the guys I looked up to, NBA guys or something like that. I got scared s**tless a couple of times by kids with chainsaws and stuff, joking around, coming out of nowhere or out of bushes.

“In my neighbourhood it was fun doing that kind of stuff. I had a terrible sweet tooth, so I was running around trick-or-treating for hours. That was like the best day ever for me. I can’t do that anymore, doing this tennis stuff, but I miss that.”

Tiafoe may no longer have to go around dodging chainsaws now he is on the ATP Tour, but that does not mean the world’s top tennis stars don’t suffer the odd fright of a different kind, as Berrettini can testify.

“Probably the scariest thing on Tour is when you figure out you didn’t sign for a tournament,” said the Italian. “Then you’re like, ‘Arghhh, I forgot’, and you have to call your coach and say you didn’t sign in. [Calling my coach in that situation] is probably the most fear I feel.”

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