After Alex de Minaur's win over Taylor Fritz on the last day of the group named after Jimmy Connors, Lorenzo Musetti had to beat world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz in two or three sets to enter the semifinals of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin for the first time in his young career.
The Italian ace – who only learned of participating in this edition of the tournament at the last moment due to the renunciation of Serbian legend Novak Djokovic – had not started his run well at the Inalpi Arena, losing quite clearly to American star Fritz on his debut. However, the talent from Carrara had raised his odds by defeating de Minaur at the end of an electrifying battle in which he seemed doomed at one point.
Musetti has enjoyed an impressive year
Musetti knew he needed a miracle against the six-time Grand Slam champion and created some problems for the 22-year-old Spaniard in the first set, but the break obtained by the number 1 seed at 5-4 represented the decisive moment of the match. From then on, Carlitos began to dominate by clearly winning the second set and earning the mathematical certainty of ending the year at the top of the ATP rankings ahead of Jannik Sinner.
Speaking on 'Sky Sports', former WTA star Laura Robson analyzed Musetti's attitude during his match against Alcaraz: “Yeah, oh, no, that’s never a good sign, but especially given that no one would have noticed that faster than Alcaraz, and all of a sudden you saw him sort of start to unleash on his game.
She also added: “Still a couple of unforced errors, but really it was the winner count that was racking up on his side of the court, and as Tim mentioned in the commentary, he was so dialled in from the first point of the match, you just knew, he had that number one spot on his mind and sometimes we see these dips in concentration, especially when the match feels quite straightforward. There was none of that today. It was like every 30-30 point you saw him look to his box, really reset and focus before either serving or same with deuce points, yeah, he just had another level when it mattered most.”
