By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, November 10, 2025
Photo credit: ATP Finals Facebook
Italian fans embraced Lorenzo Musetti with a resounding roar as he walked on court for his ATP Finals debut.
A ruthless Taylor Fritz spent the next 100 minutes muting Musetti and the Turin faithful.
Suffocating Musetti’s magic hands with deep drives, Fritz dispatched the Italian shotmaker 6-3, 6-4 in his opening round-robin match of the ATP Finals.
The 2024 finalist Fritz moves to the top of the Jimmy Connors Group—based on games won-loss record—joining Carlos Alcaraz with a 1-0 record in round-robin play. Alcaraz defeated Alex de Minaur 7-6(5), 6-2 yesterday.
A focused Fritz fired 13 aces against no double faults and saved all four break points he faced. Fritz snapped a three-match losing streak to Musetti, including a painful 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat in the 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinals where the Californian led by a set and a break but was befuddled by Musetting using the short slice to drag him forward to the front court.
Today, Fritz stifled the spin doctor’s skill shifting angle and depth. Musetti saved a match point in the ninth game then opened a love-30 lead on Fritz’s serve.
Under duress on serve for the first time in the second set, Fritz dropped the hammer torching successive aces and finishing with a flashy forehand drive winner to close in onr hour, 42 minutes.
Statement start 💪@Taylor_Fritz97 defeats home favourite Musetti 6-3 6-4 to open his Turin campaign with a win ✅#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/HJKEsXfmk1
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 10, 2025
“I think the things I want to do against him work on a fast court,” Fritz told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “I think that things I want to do against him on a slow court, they’re tough to do. Obviously, he did get me the one time at Wimbledon, but I feel like with the grass that almost helped him a bit too with him just dying the ball and me always having to lift and not being able to put the ball away.
“I feel like this court’s fast when he chipped I was able to feel like I didn’t have to red-line off of his chips to hurt him and stay aggressive. So I think the court speed definitely played a big part in me just being able to rush him and be offensive.”
Credit Musetti, who faced near constant stress on his serve, for fighting off 10 of 12 break points—and the fatigue from his run to the Athens final on Saturday. Musetti made a match of it, but Fritz called the shots from all areas of the court, including winning 10 of 14 trips to net and deploying the Italian’s own drop shot artistry against him a couple of times.
The last man to qualify for Turin earned the first break point chances of the match. Musetti held all four of his break points in the third game. Fritz slammed an ace to erase the fourth break point, pumped another ace to go Ad-In and held for 2-1.
That near breakthrough haunted Musetti in the ensuing game as he squandered a 40-30 lead.
Court positioning was key today as Fritz hovered near the baseline and blasted a backhand strike down the line for a second break point. Musetti netted a tough stretch volley as Fritz broke for a 3-1 lead.
The sixth seed slammed a leaping smash confirming the break for 4-1.
Reaching back, Fritz fired his fourth ace then followed with a stinging serve down the T closing the 48-minute opening set with his second straight love hold.
Fritz won 10 consecutive service points seizing that one-set lead.
“First of all I have to say that Taylor played really, really well,” Musetti told the media in Turin. “Of course, huge congrats to him. I think he showed a really great performance. I think the conditions and the way I felt he was playing, he is in a really good shape.
“Well, on my side I served pretty well. Then a few maybe not unlucky situations, but some situations which I could have gone up in the score. Immediately afterwards, I got breaked. That was probably the turnaround a little bit of the match and of the first set in particular.”
Despite the fact Musetti served 64 percent in that set, Fritz put the Italian under near constant stress. The American earned break points in three of Musetti’s four service games.
Starting the second set with severe pressure, Fritz hit Musetti into obscure positions behind the baseline gaining four break points in the opening game.
By then, Musetti, who lost a draining Athens final to Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic on Saturday, was tapping his Head racquet against his thighs. It was as if Musetti was trying to turn his racquet into a defibrillator to shock life into his depleted legs contesting in his fifth match in the past six days.
In an adventurous game that saw the Italian miss an underarm serve attempt, Musetti fought off all four break points surviving an arduous 12-and-a-half minute hold then raising his palms in the air in a “nothing is easy today” gesture.
“Of course, it’s something that I thought during the match and during, of course, the fact
that I was playing immediately after the final in Athens,” Musetti said. “I knew that, of course, I couldn’t be at 100% in shape, especially physically because mentally, of course, I’m really glad that I’m here. I’m real happy and super proud of myself, of my team, of what we achieved.
“In a way, I’m super proud also today because with what I had in my body, I think I tried to fight with what I had. I have to say that I felt that Taylor was better than me. If you’re going to analyze the match, it’s one break, one break in two sets.”
A sharp Fritz continued to fire away banging deep drives in the corner.
The man in black hit himself into a dark dilemma double-faulting twice in succession to hand Fritz another break point.
Prowling the baseline, Fritz pounded an inside-out forehand breaking for a 2-1 second-set lead.
The 2024 US Open finalist confirmed the break with a love hold for 3-1.
Credit Musetti for saving match point with a net rush and holding for 4-5. Fritz played two nervy shots to fall behind love-30 in the next game.
Reaching back, Fritz launched rocket serves to close and level his career head-to-head at 3-all with Musetti.
“I wouldn’t say I was that cool and collected,” Fritz said. “I missed two balls that I really shouldn’t miss to go down love-30.
“So I told myself: Wow, I’m kind of choking from the back so I need to get some free points on my serve. Luckily, I hit four good serves.”
