Musetti separates Djokovic from Monte Carlo

Italian Lorenzo Musetti achieved the most important victory in his career by winning number one in the worldSerbian novice Djokovic, in three sets, in an epic match of two hours and 56 minutes, interrupted by rain, and a place in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters 1,000.

On the fourth opportunity, with serve in hand, the Transalpine player, 21 on the ATP ranking and one of the great hopes of domestic tennis, a member of the great generation of rackets that Italy has produced in recent years, managed to close the match and seal his great success (4-6, 7- 5 and 6-4).

In the environment, he planned a duel between the two of them in Roland Garros from 2021 when Musetti, 19 years old, unknown, put the Serb on the line. He was two sets to nil on his side, but then fell apart and eventually broke the match in the fifth set after the Serbian reacted to the champion.

Then they met two more times. On a difficult path. And the Serb clearly won in both.

This time it was different. Musetti started from less to more, turned the situation around and came back. Djokovic could not avoid his second defeat of the season. The first after the one he suffered in Dubai against the Russians Daniel Medvedev.

Djokovic arrived at the clay court season the same as last year. To Monte Carlo, immediately, without participating in the American tour due to the veto by refusing to be vaccinated against covid. In 2022, he lost his first match in the Principality to Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich. On this occasion he defeated the Russian Ivan Gakhov but he lost against Musetti.

He started the match against Italian Djokovic in a rut, but it got worse. The rain saved him with a tie in one set to stay in the match. But he did not improve and ended up defeated.

Winner in Naples and Hamburg last year, Musetti celebrates his third appearance in Monte Carlo. For the first time, he will be in the quarterfinals and face his compatriot Jannik the Sinner, another one of today’s great tennis players. The player from San Cándido, eighth in the world and winner this year in Montpellier, with only one cup on earth, in Umag last year and who has already reached this section in 2022, won the match with the Pole Hubert Hurkacz for 3-6, 7-6 (6) and 6-1.

And the American fulfilled his obligation Taylor Fritz, who defeated the Czech Jiri Lehecka with 4-6, 6-4 and 6-1. The North American will be the opponent of the current champion, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the second favorite, who beat the Chilean Nicholas Jarry with 6-3 and 6-4.