Musetti wins match against Jarry in Cincinnati | ATP Tour

Cincinnati

Musetti wins a game before Jarry in Cincinnati

Your next rival will be Frances Tiafoe

August 14, 2024

Although Lorenzo Musetti had not played a match on hard courts since March in Miami, his return to this surface has been a victory. Facing the No. 25 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Chilean Nicolás Jarry, the Italian won with scores of 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in the first round of the Cincinnati Open.

“I am very happy to win. Nico was playing very well and I was not finding my game at the beginning of the match. The conditions are very fast and changing from clay to fast courts is not easy, but I managed it. I am very happy to have won both tie-breaks and proud of the battle I put up,” said the No. 14 seed in Ohio.

The 22-year-old right-hander’s last appearance was at the Paris Olympic Games, held on the clay of Roland Garros, where Musetti won the bronze medal. After finishing with a victory in the French capital, he has now started with another triumph at ATP Masters 1000 level to continue increasing his great level in recent tournaments.

Since June, the world No. 18 has been a semi-finalist in Stuttgart and Wimbledon, a finalist at Queen’s Club and Umag, and a medallist in Paris. He is now looking to continue his winning streak in Cincinnati, where he will face Frances Tiafoe on Wednesday. The Lexus ATP HeadToHead is 2-2.

It was not easy, in any case, to make progress on Tuesday. In addition to only winning one more point than the Chilean in the match (104 against 103), he was unable to win any games against the rest during the almost three hours of play (2h47m). But he was more thorough in the tiebreaks and thanks to that he now has a 1-1 record with Jarry, who, despite his good form in Ohio, has still not won a match since the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome last May.

“Nico didn’t give me any chances to break him, but I focused on my serve. I’m not that happy with my level of play, but the important thing is to be in the next round,” Musetti added.

Tiafoe also advanced to the second round of the tournament, defeating a Spanish player. Earlier in the day, he defeated Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina with scores of 6-3, 7-6(6) to improve to 9-2 in his debut in hard court tournaments this season.

“I think he played some pretty good points. And he’s Spanish and he fights until the end, so I knew that beforehand and I wasn’t too surprised,” Tiafoe said of ‘Foki’, who had set point at 6/5 in the tiebreak. “He’s a quality player, who’s been on the circuit for a long time and wins a lot of matches here on the Tour, so it was a good win.”

In other results, American qualifier Alex Michelsen beat Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to become the first opponent of top seed Jannik Sinner. They will meet for the first time on Wednesday.

Ben Shelton also beat fellow countryman Reilly Opelka 7-6(3), 7-6(3). The 12th seed will now face the winner of Wednesday’s match between Argentine Tomás Etcheverry and Matteo Arnaldi.