Paris Snippets: Musetti’s the Real Deal

Paris – Lorenzo Musetti is a assured participant.

All the things he has achieved within the final 52 weeks has helped him be simply that.

You possibly can see it within the Italians’ physique language, and in his outcomes. We noticed it firsthand on Tuesday on Court docket Simonne-Mathieu because the 22-year-old dismantled Colombia’s Daniel Galan in straight units to succeed in the third spherical in Paris.

Was he relaxed? Throughout a rain delay, he sat in his chair, like a gentleman, holding an umbrella for a ball child.

Per niente scontato, bellissimo gesto Lollo 👏🧡

#Tennis #RolandGarros #Musetti pic.twitter.com/tss6ShV41K

— Eurosport IT (@Eurosport_IT) May 28, 2025

Apparently so.

It might’ve been an extended day. Tough situations, an opponent who loves the clay and who was hitting his forehand extraordinarily nicely. However the Italian made positive it wasn’t.

Since breaking out eventually Wimbledon and reaching the semifinals, Musetti has turn out to be a special participant. He then received the bronze medal on the Paris Olympics on the crimson clay, his greatest floor.

All of the steps Musetti has taken have led him right here. He’s all the time been a gifted participant, and one with a really various talent set. He can use all of the instruments and all of the ways, and maybe it was only a query of time for Musetti. The time that it takes to really perceive what instruments and ways to make use of in opposition to what gamers.

With a particularly versatile, one-hand backhand that he can drive with topspin or slice diabolically, the Italian can maintain his opponents guessing.

And lately as he good points expertise on tour, he can learn their reactions to what he delivers, and base his evolving ways on that data.

We will clearly see that Musetti is past his early life on tour. He entered the highest 10 simply earlier than Roland-Garros and he has received 23 of his final 27 matches on clay. In different phrases, he’s coming into his personal.

He reached the ultimate in Monte-Carlo, and backed it up with semifinals in Madrid and Rome, the place he grew to become the third Italian man to succeed in the semifinals at Rome this century, and the ninth participant in historical past to succeed in a minimum of the semifinals in any respect three clay-court Masters 1000 occasions in the identical season.

Musetti says the expertise is a key think about his rise.

“I consider course I am extra skilled on the Grand Slams, particularly making semis in Wimbledon,” he stated on Wednesday in Paris. “I perceive what I want throughout a Grand Slam – even earlier than a Grand Slam – not simply by way of bodily coaching, however by way of basic each day routine, each day life.

“I believe that brings me extra confidence and extra belief in what I am doing proper now.”

Catch a glimpse of Musetti on the clay, and it’s simple to see why he’s so profitable. He by no means performs the identical shot twice. He’s in possession of a lot selection, he’s obtained weapons that he can use to assault when time is correct, and he’s additionally probably the greatest movers within the males’s recreation on the clay.

Simply watch these 10 meter lengthy skid marks that path behind him on the clay as he slides right into a successful volley. Snap.

Musetti has by no means been the kind of participant that may simply carry out his weapons and use them with out ever occupied with issues on a deeper stage. Which explains why it may need taken him longer to develop. He wanted to find out about how his got here could be impactful, earlier than he might really unleash it.

He’s unleashing it now, at No.7 on the earth, and a real menace to make a deep entrance in Paris. If Carlos Alcaraz falters in Paris, would you be shocked to see him within the last? It’s all attainable now for Musetti in a means it ever was earlier than, and it could possibly be only the start.