MELBOURNE, Australia — Lorenzo Musetti reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 9 Taylor Fritz.
The fifth-seeded Musetti has had a disrupted run, with one of his coaches and a physio having to return to Italy for personal reasons. He also had to leave his family after the birth in November of his second son.
“I feel more mature on the court. I’m playing better for that, and for them,” he said. “I didn’t get much sleep in the offseason. But we found a way to work and to practice really well on and off the court.
“Now it’s more than 20 days that I’m alone and it’s not easy, but I feel their presence also here.”
His next mission is against a rested Novak Djokovic. The 24-time major winner had been scheduled to be the feature night match at Rod Laver Arena on Monday but had a walkover into the quarterfinals after his opponent Jakub Mensik withdrew from their scheduled fourth-round match because of an abdominal injury.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
