Lorenzo Musetti Eliminated in Montreal: No Rematch with Rafael Jodar
No rematch for Lorenzo Musetti at the Montreal Masters 1000. After his victory in Washington, the Italian tennis player was eliminated in the third round by Spain’s Rafael Jodar, who won 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes of play. In the round of 16, the Madrid native will face Czech player Jiri Lehecka, while Musetti now turns his attention to the Cincinnati Masters 1000.
The match got off to a hard-fought start. The first game dragged on through six deuces and three break points in Jodar’s favor, all of which Musetti saved thanks to excellent performance on his first serve. Taking advantage of the Spaniard’s forehand errors, the Tuscan managed to break serve and jump out to a 2-0 lead, but failed to consolidate the advantage. In fact, some inaccuracies with his forehand allowed Jodar to fight back to 2-2.
The match remained evenly balanced, featuring spectacular rallies and several high-quality points, often decided by Musetti. At 4-3, the Italian even had a chance to regain a break lead, but Jodar held his serve and completely shifted the momentum of the match. Starting from the second 40-all in the game, he strings together ten consecutive points, capitalizing on the solidity of his shots and his opponent’s numerous errors, thus closing out the first set 6-4.
The start of the second set is equally challenging for both players. Musetti immediately lost his serve but managed to break back right away thanks to a more aggressive approach, only to lose his serve again—this time to love. From that moment on, Jodar definitively took control of the match and pulled ahead to 4-1, also capitalizing on a poorly executed drop shot by the Italian—one of the shots that had caused him the most trouble up to that point.
Despite his nerves and errors, Musetti tried to get back into the match with a burst of pride and recovered one of the two breaks he was down. The comeback, however, ended there: Jodar held his next service game with authority and, in the ninth game, also capitalized on a double fault by the Italian at 0-30 to close out the match with a final score of 6-3.
The statistics clearly reflect the difference seen on the court. Musetti won just 49% of the points on his first serve, compared to 71% for the Spaniard. The ratio of winners to unforced errors also clearly favors Jodar (19-22), while the Tuscan finished with just 11 winners and a whopping 34 unforced errors—numbers that explain a performance well below his usual standards. With Musetti’s elimination, the only Italians still in contention in the Canadian tournament are Matteo Arnaldi and Luciano Darderi.
