By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday May 14, 2025
Lorenzo Musetti topped Alexander Zverev and became the third Italian man to reach the Rome semfinals since 2000.
Photo Source: TTV.
Alexander Zverev had taken firm control of the first set of his quarterfinal with Lorenzo Musetti on Wednesday evening, leading 6-5. Then the German was hit by a steady dose of Musetti magic.
The Italian stylishly swerved through 14 of the next 16 points, saving four set points in the process as his drop shot clinic brough the Foro Italico faithful to their feet time and time again.
When the clinic was over, the 24-year-old had claimed the first set in a lopsided tiebreak, and the momentum was firmly in his hand.
He never let it slip.
Musetti, playing in his first Slam as a Top-10 player, marched through a tense second set, securing the only break in the ninth game, and went on to claim a 7-6(1), 6-4 victory to set a semifinal with Carlos Alcaraz.
“It’s amazing,” Musetti said as he gave his interview inside frenzied Campo Centrale, Rome's fabled center court. “It’s so late and a full stadium, that’s a big advantage. All this week there has been incredible support from the crowd. I felt the adrenaline and the energy from the first point, even if it was not an easy start. I managed to come back to find a way and that’s the key of this match.”
The victory means that Musetti is the third Italian man to reach the semifinals at Rome this century, and the ninth player in history to reach at least the semifinals at all three clay-court Masters 1000 events in the same season. He reached the final at Monte-Carlo, the semifinal at Madrid and is still alive in the eternal city.
Musetti used the drop shot to great effect against Zverev, and it served him well. He won 15 of the 20 points in which he employed the tactic.
“Of course it was part of the strategy to try to make things complicated for Sascha because he’s such a good ball striker, especially when he stays a little bit far from the baseline. I took the chance to drop sometimes and it was working well because the court, with the humidity of the night, was pretty heavy. It was not bouncing much, and I got an advantage from that, even in the last game it was very important.”
Musetti converted all three break points he faced, and saved four of six break points. Most important, of course, were the four set points he saved at the conclusion of the first set.
He saved the first with a beautiful backhand pass that forced Zverev to pop up a volley, which he then struck for a winner. On the second, Musetti unleashed a 100 MPH inside-out winner; a pristine drop shot-forehand combo saved the third and got him to deuce, and a bold backhand drop shot forced a Zverev error on the German’s fourth set point.
Momentum in hand, Musetti won the next seven points to lead 5-0 in the breaker, and converted his first set point three points later.
Musetti saved a break point in the second game of the second set and was never threatened again. He broke through for 5-4 and calmly served out the win to improve to 20-6 on the season and 22-4 on clay since the start of the Paris Olympics last summer.
He’ll have his hands full on Friday when he faces Alcaraz in the semifinals. The Spaniard has won the pair’s last four meetings, including a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory in the Monte-Carlo final.