Masters 1000 Madrid: Lorenzo Musetti clears his first hurdle
The Madrid Masters 1000 started well for Lorenzo Musetti who, after taking advantage of a ‘bye’ that gave him direct access to the second round, defeated 7-6(3), 6-2 the Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry earning him access to the third round of the tournament in the Spanish capital, in which he plays as the number 10 seed.
After an excellent start, which brings him up to 4-1, Musetti has a moment of flexion that allows the Argentine to recover the break disadvantage getting to take the fraction to the tie-break: in the decisive mini-game the Carrara player risks, going down 3-1, before, however, he scores six consecutive points that allow him to move ahead in the set count.
Much simpler was the second game fraction: Etcheverry immediately nullified three break points and seemed to still hold his opponent’s lead, but Musetti from the fourth game onwards literally took over the reins of the match and went on to close out the match by winning five consecutive games, making the best use of the first and only match point at 5-2, 40-15.
With the landing in the third round, Musetti equals his best result in the Madrid tournament (in the 2022 edition), an event that historically has never given him great satisfaction: in 2021 he did not make it past the qualifiers, while in 2023 and 2024 he did not go beyond the second round. Last year he was surprisingly eliminated by Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild in two sets.
