Wimbledon | Lorenzo Musetti beats Taylor Fritz to join Novak Djokovic in semi-finals

There will indeed be an Italian in the last four at Wimbledon. But it’s not the one we thought before the start of this fortnight. While world number 1 Jannik Sinner laid down his arms in the quarter-finals, his compatriot Lorenzo Musetti will be getting his first taste of a Grand Slam semi-final. Already a novice in the quarter-finals, the Italian was not intimidated and delivered a very good performance to overcome Taylor Fritz, world number 12, in five sets (3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1) and 3 hours and 27 minutes of play on Centre Court. He will challenge seven-time tournament winner Novak Djokovic in the last four.

On paper, he was certainly the slight outsider in this match. Of course, Lorenzo Musetti had been playing very well on grass for several weeks, having reached the Queen’s final in preparation. But at Wimbledon, he had never been this far, while Taylor Fritz had experienced a precedent two years ago when Rafael Nadal frustrated him at the gates of the semi-finals. But apart from the start of the game, it was the Italian who best controlled events. The American did not crack mentally, he was just tactically dominated by a more gifted player who delighted in sequences.

Musetti drove Fritz crazy with his variations.

Certainly, Fritz led by a set and a break at the start of the second (6-3, 1-0), his great quality of recovery, his ball length and his good court coverage having initially deprived Musetti of solutions. But little by little, the latter wove his web. Immediately breaking, he worked his opponent’s body with his poisonous backhand slice. He hit all the zones: short crosscourt, along the line, in the center without giving an angle before sometimes changing rhythm abruptly. By snatching the second act in the tie-break, he clearly took the upper hand.

And the third set was a little gem of grass tennis. In total control, Musetti gave the lesson brilliantly, he the adept of the beautiful game (3-6, 7-6, 6-2). Also incisive in his forward tennis, including on the forehand side, he made the American run wild, who no longer knew where to turn. The Italian disgusted Fritz by making him run on drop shots, by never giving him the same ball to play twice in a row. The Californian therefore had all the more merit in hanging on in the fourth set, saving 4 break points, notably at 2-2, before seizing the opponent’s service once morest the run of play to take his rival into a fifth set.

The exercise had not really succeeded for Musetti recently at Roland-Garros in the 3rd round once morest Djokovic. But this time, he did not let himself get down, quite the contrary. He resumed his undermining work, varying the effects and trajectories more than ever to deliver the final blow with a sublime long backhand winner, validating an entry break. By dint of bending his long legs on the opponent’s slices, Fritz ended up letting go, dominated as much tennisically, tactically as physically. Musetti, for his part, concluded brilliantly, making himself the representative of the one-handed backhand in the last four. Now, he will have to tackle the Djokovic mountain, a different kettle of fish.