Lorenzo Musetti has a clear goal after forced stop

Lorenzo Musetti is ready to get back on the ATP circuit. After more than a month of enforced stop, the world number 5 ranking is expected to return to the court in Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 of the season, scheduled from March 4 to 15. After the latest medical checks, optimism is shining through from the staff of the Carrara-based tennis player, who had to necessarily change his schedule this early in the season after the injury suffered during the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

The withdrawal against Novak Djokovic, in Melbourne, had come when Musetti was leading two sets to nil, leaving more than one regret given what the Italian had shown in the previous rounds. The muscle problem in the ileopsoas of his right leg had then forced him to forgo the entire South American tour: no Buenos Aires, no Rio de Janeiro, no Acapulco. A prudent but necessary choice to avoid relapses in an already important phase of the season.

Francesco Lucivero

According to reports from Sky Sport, the latest examinations Musetti underwent have confirmed progress from a physical point of view: the Carrara player has returned to training with continuity and is planning to return precisely on the Californian cement in a tournament, not so much to regain immediate results as to get back into rhythm at a high level and to shake off possible rusts resulting from the long period of inactivity. Already in the next tournament, the one in Miami (March 18-29) he will instead try to raise the’bar.

Unfortunately for Musetti, the downtime has not affected him from a ranking standpoint: the Olympic bronze medalist in Paris 2024 currently has 4,405 points and has ahead of him only the unreachable Carlos Alcaraz (13,550) and Jannik Sinner (10,400), the’eternal Novak Djokovic (5,280) and the always solid Alexander Zverev (4,555).

The rankings, from fifth place down, are very short, however, and doing well in the United States before the clay-court season will also be decisive for better seeding precisely in spring tournaments. All that remains is to wait for Lorenzo Musetti’s official return to the court to check his state of form: Italian fans hope to see the tennis player seen in January, with the final reached in Hong Kong and the Australian ride that consolidated his’appreciation by the insiders.