Lorenzo Musetti: "With Carlos, the mental aspect" will be important;
With the dampness of a semifinal still on his skin, pulled like a violin string and won with nerves, talent, and a pinch of good madness, Lorenzo Musetti stands before the microphones at the press conference with the calm smile of someone who has just climbed a mountain without knowing whether there would be oxygen at the top.
He has just beaten Alex De Minaur in a breathtaking victory and earned his first, historic final in a Masters 1000. And meanwhile, without almost realizing it, he’s also put one foot in the back of the world’s top ten (he’s virtually number 11 for now). But he doesn’t seem to want to think about it too much, although then he can’t hide his satisfaction: “To be close to the top 10 is something really unexpected – he confesses -. I dreamed about it, of course, I can’t hide it. But today I just want to try to enjoy this moment. And think about the next game.”
The next match is a final against Carlos Alcaraz, world number three, cover man of global tennis. A duel that promises sparks. “I have already won against Carlos, but it was a long time ago, in Hamburg. I remember it was a very hard-fought, very tough match. The key to winning then? The mental part. And it will be tomorrow as well.”
And it is precisely on mental toughness that Musetti seems to have made an obvious leap forward this week. A tournament that started on an uphill slope – “I could have gone out already against Bu in the first round” – and continued as if on an emotional roller coaster. But with one constant: the ability to stay in the match, even when everything seemed to be going wrong.”
“I never started matches well this week,” he admits, “but the most important thing was to be able to keep my focus. Even today, with Alex, the most difficult moment was at 5-4 in the third: he had new balls, he responded great, and I had to grit my teeth. Coming out like that was perhaps the clearest sign of my growth.”
It is a lucid, aware, mature Musetti. One who does not exalt himself, but neither does he hide behind the shyness he once had. “Today’s was probably the game where I came out as a higher level player than the other games of the week. I was always in difficult situations, but I handled them. Simone (Tartarini, ed.) always tells me, ‘A set lost is always a set lost, whether it’s 6-1 or 7-6.’ It’s the attitude that makes the difference.”
And then the accumulated fatigue, the hours on court, the marathon games and the endless chases against tough opponents also become details. “Maybe I’m the player who has spent the most time on the court this week – he smiles – but it doesn’t bother me. I know Carlos comes in fresher, but I’ll give it the best I have. I will try to rest as much as I can tonight to replenish my energy. But then, when I take the field, there will be no room to think about fatigue.”
Carlo Galati
