His opponent started with a wildcard. With a wildcard for the qualification! And is almost twice as young as the legend. But that wasn’t even noticeable on the court.
On the one hand Stan Wawrinka. A superstar to whom nothing more needs to be said. On the other hand, Lorenzo Musetti, who was born in the year when the Swiss came on the professional tour. A youngster not very much said about yet. At the Australian Junior Open in 2019, the Italian attracted attention when he won the title. However, he has not yet been able to set an example on the professional tour. Until the match in Rome. Because Musetti actually won 6: 0, 7: 6.
The youngster is completely cold as ice
After the first round, the audience rubbed their eyes in amazement. 3-0 after ten minutes, 6-0 after 23 minutes. In a clay court match. And not for the clear favorite Wawrinka, but for the 18-year-old Musetti.
The second set was also fast, with „Stan the Man“ already back 2-0 down. But then the Swiss gradually braced himself against his threatening fate and won the first game after a hard fight. And a little later even led 4: 3. But whoever expected that Musetti might thwart his nerves in the tight phase, was again deceived. Not even at 4: 5 and 30:30 – by the way, the game was already twice as long as in the first set.
So it went into the tie-break shortly afterwards. And here, too, no nervous flutter at all for the 18-year-old, who gave the three-time Grand Slam champion no chance at 7: 2. The rest, of course, huge cheers with the local hero, who now meets another world-class player. With Kei Nishikori, the former number four in the world is waiting. Nishikori beat Albert Ramos Vinolas 6: 4, 7: 6.
(Image (c) imago images / ZUMA Press)
