Indian Wells, happy night for the Azzurri: ahead Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti
Two biggies in the field, both advance the round without particular headaches.
Indian Wells happy for the Italians on the court on the night of the American Masters 1000. Indeed, on the Californian cement came the victories of both Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti, both making their debut in the competition. The former è managed to prevail in two sets over Australian Christopher O'Connell with a score of 6-2, 7-6(2), the latter got the better of Roman Safiullin in three: 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 the final.
Very few headaches for Berrettini, who was able to win the first set in half an hour. The Roman snatched service from O'Connell already in the very first game, he è saw himself cancel a break point in the third and instead took it home in the fifth. At that point è it was enough for him to control operations. No jolt in the second set, apart from a very long eighth game. After more than an hour and the tie-break, therefore, the blue è è took home success and passage of the round.
More complicated was the path of Musetti, who needed nearly two hours and three quarters to break down Safiullin’s resistance. Initially leading 3-0, the Tuscan è saw himself come back up to 3-2 by an opponent who held his own for over an hour. Decisive then was the 12th game, in which he è managed to take another, decisive break. Similar but opposite trend for the next set: no break until 5-5, but in the 11th game it was the Russian who took the decisive point to overtake.
The great balance between the two è però broke out in the third and decisive set: crazy first four games, all marked by as many breaks. At that point it però took over Musetti, who left the crumbs to Safiullin going on to close on 6-2. In the next round he will face Arthur Fils, while Berrettini will face the tricky challenge with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
