Alexander Zverev has made a successful start to the quarter-finals, but in the end he was beaten by Lorenzo Musetti. The Hamburg native had already lost to the Italian at the Olympic Games in the summer.
Tokyo Olympics champion Alexander Zverev has been knocked out in the quarter-finals at the ATP tournament in Vienna. On Friday in Austria, the Hamburg native lost to Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 4-6 in a hard-fought duel, thus missing out on getting revenge for the Italian’s elimination in the summer. In Paris, the German tennis pro lost 5-7, 5-7 to the eventual bronze medalist in the round of the last eight.
Zverev has thus notched up 61 victories this season. With his success in the round of 16 against the American Marcos Giron, the German broke his personal record of 60 victories in a year.
Zverev loses after dominant start
Zverev dominated the first set. While Musetti made too many mistakes, the German was highly concentrated. After just 38 minutes, the Hamburg native took the first set.
Musetti then turned up the heat at the start of the second set. While the Italian was now finding his game, Zverev was visibly struggling on the court, and it was quickly 1-4. But the world number three fought his way back into the set, with the tiebreak deciding the game – with Musetti coming out on top.
In the third set, it remained an evenly matched encounter. After 2 hours and 35 minutes, Musetti converted the first match point to advance to the semi-finals.
‘Fairytale Musetti’
‘The match was at a high level, there were many ups and downs for both of us’, said Musetti after the duel, his victory earned great applause on the ground and storms of enthusiasm at home.
The Gazzetta dello Sport raved about a “phenomenal” performance in the third set, while Italian Sky celebrated him as “Meraviglioso Musetti” (Fairytale Musetti).
While Zverev now has to travel back home, Musetti will face the number seven seeded Briton Jack Draper in the semi-finals in Vienna.