As usual, the first three months of a tennis season were quite tough for Lorenzo Musetti. The only bright moment was reaching the quarterfinals in Rotterdam as he was able to upset Mikael Ymer and Hubert Hurkacz, translating his game to the slower indoor surface. By the time we reached the clay season, Musetti’s ranking dropped a bit and he was no longer able to get into the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid automatically, having to play qualifying.
Lorenzo Musetti in 2022
Mediocre clay swing
In all the warm-up events before Roland Garros, Musetti won two matches and lost in his third (either the quarterfinals or the third round, depending on the size of the draw). In Marrakech, he was stopped in his tracks by Laslo Djere, who’s now 4-0 against him on clay courts. Diego Schwartzman then took him out in two consecutive events (Monte Carlo and Barcelona). An injury suffered against Alexander Zverev in Madrid forced him out of the Rome Masters, but he was back on court for Roland Garros.
Unseeded for Paris, Musetti was handed one of the most awful draws out there as he needed to face Stefanos Tsitsipas in round one. Despite going two sets to love up, he never really threatened to take the match as the 2021 runner-up steadied the course. Before trying himself on the grass, Musetti successfully looked for rhythm on the Challenger Tour, winning a very complicated title in Forli. All matches went to a deciding set and the 20-year-old lost the opener on four occasions, but somehow always found a way to come out on top.
Maiden ATP Tour title
Musetti didn’t score a single victory on grass and went back to clay for the post-Wimbledon swing. After another loss to Djere in Bastad, expectations weren’t high. But there came the tournament that changed the course of the Italian’s season. In Hamburg, he survived a tough battle against Dusan Lajovic (6-7 7-6 6-3, two match points saved) in the opening round and cruised through his next three matches to make a maiden ATP Tour final. Despite being a massive underdog against the soon-to-be World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, Musetti gave one of the best showings of his career to stop his fellow NextGen star and clinch the trophy.
The 20-year-old didn’t make any headlines during the North American hard court season, but made the most out of a great draw at the US Open. Against David Goffin in Round 1, he was 2-5 down in the deciding set (two breaks), before prevailing in the 10-point tie-break. He was then able to dispatch Gijs Brouwer, but couldn’t snap another superb New York run from Ilya Ivashka.
Improving off-clay
With Musetti, the big issue has always been his lack of ability to survive in faster conditions. While the 20-year-old has done pretty decent on slower hard courts, his groundstrokes can be effectively rushed and plenty of his tactical choices don’t really work off-clay. Indoor conditions definitely don’t suit him, but he’s been introducing changes to his game and stepping more forward into the court to counteract it.
It led to back-to-back semifinals in Sofia and Florence, before Musetti was able to win his 2nd ATP Tour title in Naples, not dropping a single set at a hard-court event. That run started with a win over his nemesis Djere and ended with a brilliant display over Matteo Berrettini. Just before the end of the season, he was also able to prove his improving ability to take his game to different conditions in Paris. On the way to the quarterfinals, he produced quality performances against Marin Cilic and Casper Ruud.
Overall, this was a pretty fantastic year for Musetti, who did seem to stagnate a bit at the beginning of 2022. His natural ability is absolutely unbelievable, but the game is kind of hard to execute with no obvious ways to win points. Perhaps that’s why the experience of playing a full year on the ATP Tour came in so handy. Ranking-wise, the Italian went from 59 at the end of 2021 to 23 at the moment. If he can keep performing much better on hard courts, his ranking might keep improving in the first three moments of 2023. Most importantly, he should be seeded for Roland Garros next year and will be sure that he won’t draw someone like Tsitsipas again.
Main Photo from Getty.
