Closing his eyes, Musetti knocks on the door of the Top 10 in Madrid | ATP Tour

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Closing his eyes, Musetti knocks on the door of Top 10 in Madrid

The Italian scale until No. 9 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings

April 26, 2025

The doors of the PIF ATP Rankings are reserved for the best. In Mutua Madrid Open, Lorenzo Musetti may have found the keys to unlock that bolt.

Since landing in the circuit, the Italian has sustained an obvious pressure on his shoulders: to be recognized as one of the great talents of the new generation. At 23, with the accumulated experience in each blow, the Italian continues to approach a top that seemed destined on his way. In a wardrobe that looks strongly at the future, the European silhouette struggles to become one of the firm images on the first line of ATP Tour.

The whipped land of the Magic Box this Saturday attended the last example of the Carrara player, capable of winning 7-6 (3), 6-2 to Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry to settle in the third round of the tournament. The Italian, who reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Montecarlo weeks ago, completing one of his main milestones as a professional, continues to use the European spotted land tour to sentence the entrance to the world top 10 for the first time in his career.

The victory at the Arantxa Sánchez stadium, drawn with a collection of setbacks to one hand and blows of great plasticity, served to underline the rise of a splendor tennis player. Musetti was placed virtually in No. 9 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings, elbow with the strongest players of the locker room. Without points to protect in the Spanish capital, the Italian has ahead of the opportunity to underpin a firm arrival to the elite of the circuit.

“This week, I don’t even want to look at the classification,” the Italian said.

His arrival at the Magic Box has been a perfect balance between performance and rest. After reaching the final of the Principality, the Italian ruled out his participation in Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell looking for an optimal tuning in the Spanish capital. The days of preparation, accumulated in a body in need of rest, seek to bear fruit during the next few days under the sun of Madrid.

“When you wait a lot, the rush can enter to play,” said the Italian, who arrived more than a week ago to Madrid. “In a way, it is something positive. You do not have to have a negative approach, put pressure on you, for not playing a game in two weeks. Sometimes training sensations can be perfect, but the competition can be different. I think I have managed this time well and I have had the right attitude on the track.”

Musetti’s achievement would not be any national situation, in a country where tennis crosses a maximum moment of attention. Lorenzo aspires to become the sixth Italian tennis player capable of reaching the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings in individual modality, following in the footsteps of his compatriots Jannik Sinner, Adriano Panatta, Matteo Berrettini, Corrado Barazzutti and Fabio Fognini.

With the opportunity to become an absolute protagonist in Madrid, Musetti enters a field of direct crosses with great figures. The Italian will look for a place in the round of 16 before the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, three times ATP Masters 1000 champion on clay, or the German Jan-Lennard Struff, former runner-up in the Magic Box.

Musetti’s rise comes after a year full of great deeds in all types of surfaces, including its first Grand Slam semifinal on Wimbledon’s grass, the bronze medal achieved in the Paris Olympic Games or a start of the 2025 season of regularity, in which it has achieved at least one victory in all players played.

In Madrid, where the spotlights focus on a range of players, Musetti can attract looks at their own rhythm.