Musetti eliminates the current champion and now goes for Alcaraz in Rome | ATP Tour

Roma

Musetti goes for Alcaraz in Rome

The Italian will play his first semifinals of the tournament after eliminating the current champion

May 14, 2025

Very few players in this century have been able to advance at least to the semifinals of the three ATP Masters 1000 on beaten land – Montecarlo, Madrid and Rome – in the same season. The list, which does not include legends such as Roger Federer, reached seven this Wednesday thanks to the triumph of Lorenzo Musetti 7-6 (1), 6-4 against Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the Internali Bnl bnl d’Italia.

On the list are also Rafael Nadal, Zverev himself, Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andy Murray and David Ferrer. Musetti has earned a place in the exclusive club with one of the most worked victories of his season, especially considering the initial sleeve.

No. 9 of the PIF ATP Rankings lost 2-4 and, although he recovered the break, it seemed that the set was missing when his service game was lost in 5-5. To complete, Zverev had an advantage of 40/0. At that time, ‘Lolo’ was reborn by winning the next three points with winning shots. In addition, he saved the fourth Set Point thanks to a non -forced rival error.

With that impulse he reached a Tie-Break in which he was unstoppable by connecting two winning shots and benefiting from four non-forced errors of Zverev. More confidence won by saving a Break Point in his first serve game of the second partial.

The reward made more wait this time: it generated its first Break Point of the set in 4-4, but took advantage of it as well as the opportunity to take advantage of the next game that crowned with a winning right-wing shot at two hours and 15 minutes of play, in order to leave its Lexus ATP Headtohead with Zverev in 3-1.

The numbers support the twentieth victory of his incredible season: he connected more winning shots than his rival (21 against 20), and made many less unin -forced errors (22 against 36).

“Playing with full stadium is a great advantage. Throughout this week the support of the fans has been incredible,” Musetti said, now No. 8 in the live ranking. “I felt adrenaline and energy from the first point, although it was not an easy beginning, but I managed to overcome and find the way”

This result makes it the third Italian in the semifinals of the tournament in this century, matching Lorenzo Sonego (2021) and Filippo Volandri (2007), who could not reach the final in their respective participations. In addition, he is now the youngest place in this tournament round in Rome from Paolo Bertolucci in 1973.

“The idea was to try to complicate things to ‘Sascha’, since he is a player with great blows,” Musetti said. “Especially when he walked away from the background, I took the opportunity to do some drops and worked well because the court, with the humidity of the night, did not let the ball bounce much.”

The 23 -year -old right -handed will be playing on Friday its semifinal twentieths in the ATP Tour, and looking for its seventh final. The obstacle to achieving it is called Carlos Alcaraz, who leads 4-1 the Lexus ATP Headtohead between them. The two will be debuting in a semifinals of Rome.