Too much Daniil Medvedev for Lorenzo Musetti: Azzurri knocked out in Toronto

It’s not enough to struggle, the number 3 in the world wins.

Lorenzo Musetti loses to Daniil Medvedev and leaves the Toronto Masters 1000 already in the round of 16. The Russian, number 3 on the ATP circuit, needed only two sets and about an hour and 32 minutes of play: 6-4, 6-4 the final.

Musetti’s match was far from negative, with the Carrarese player focused and on court with clear ideas on how to face Medvedev. The latter, however, shows a very high level of tennis and manages to take home the decisive points by exploiting the rare moments of indecision of the Italian. It happens for example in the seventh game of the first set, in which comes the decisive break of the Russian after as many as 10 points.

The next set is more dynamic, in which Medvedev breaks Musetti’s serve already at 2-1 (and after, moreover, an equally contested game). The Tuscan managed to recover and snatched the 3-3 from his feared rival, but already in the next game came a further break (to 0) that actually steered the match to its natural conclusion.

“More difficult to control Sinner’s backhand or the emotions? The emotions,” Musetti had said a week ago, “are a tougher opponent than any shot. Also because in today’s tennis there are no big technical and tactical gaps, you can see it even from the many players close to the top 100 who manage to beat a top 10 or even a top 5. We are moving more and more toward a flattening of values. The difference, at a certain level, is on the emotional level and on the mental level. And there the best have an edge. Tennis is a sport that can take you to the top quickly but sometimes it hurts you so much that you almost come to reject it. In the last couple of weeks so much stress built up, I had to defend the victory in Hamburg and subconsciously I felt it. I felt like being on the court, but some nervousness came back. However, it didn’t go horribly (semifinals in Bastad, quarters in Hamburg, ed.), and besides a few points I feel I brought home some extra experience.”