The story of the week in the tennis world is about the Italian teenager Lorenzo Musetti. At Mexican Open 2021, the 19-year-old has reached his first ATP 500 semifinal and will secure a Top 100 rank this coming Monday.
Moreover, the qualifier in Acapulco has a resume consisting of a mere 11 main draw matches. Despite that, the Carrara-born outclassed the third and fifth seed on his way to the last four.
Recently, he defeated Bulgarian World No. 16 Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-6 (3). Even though this was a tremendous win in Mexico, the Italian scraped seven match points before securing the match.
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Lorenzo calls his win against Dimitrov ‘the best match of my life’
The 19-year-old would not have expected such a week when he started as a qualifier on Monday. “It’s incredible really. I didn’t expect this. Today, I think I played the best match in my life. Grigor is an incredible opponent, a great fighter,” the Italian said.
However, he added that his struggle with converting match points was yet again wearing on his coach. But Lorenzo claimed that it was his winning spirit that has been helping him prevail in the tournament.
“I feel that I really like winning and don’t like losing,” Musetti said. “So I try to stay focused even in the hard moments, and I think this is the key and the improvement that I made this month.”
ATP Ranking will have two teenagers in the top 100 on Monday.
Both Italians. pic.twitter.com/GiyWJAbFbU
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) March 19, 2021
With this win, the 19-year-old will take his place in the Top 100 when ATP rankings revise next week. Notably, he will become the second Italian teenager to enter the Top 100, joining the 19-year-old Jannik Sinner ranked 32.
Lorenzo Musetti will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Mexican Open SF
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Following Grigor, the Italian teenager will face the top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the hopes of reaching his first ATP Tour final. Unsurprisingly, he looks at the Greek World No. 5 with the highest regard.
“[Tsitsipas] is one of the biggest guys on tour. It’s really an honor to play with him,” Lorenzo said. “I think this week every day it’s something more special so let’s see tomorrow what happens.”
On paper, Tsitsipas may already be the winner, but Musseti would not fade away without a fight. Do you think the Italian would cause another upset in the Mexican Open 2021?
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