Lorenzo Musetti, misses a'important opportunity but there's still good news

Lorenzo Musetti was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Barcelona tournament. The Carrara native, who in the previous rounds had folded first home wild card Martin Landaluce and then Frenchman Corentin Moutet, was unable to overcome the third obstacle, the other transalpine Arthur Fils, who won 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and sixteen minutes of play.

Despite the grit he put in, Musetti thus missed an important opportunity as the tournament’s highest seed, since Carlos Alcaraz, the eve’s favorite, had been forced to retire before the second round against Tomas Machac, due to a wrist problem that, by the way, will also keep him out of the next major tournament on the circuit, the Madrid Masters 1000.

In addition to Alcaraz and Musetti, numbers three and four in the seeding, Alex de Minaur (defeated by Hamad Medjedovic in the second round) and Karen Khachanov (knocked out already in the first round, beaten by Camilo Ugo Carabelli), are also no longer part of the tournament. The highest seed is therefore now Andrey Rublev, with the number five seed: the Russian is already in the semifinals, where he will face Medjedovic.

Despite Friday’s knockout, however, Lorenzo Musetti managed to gain 90 ranking points, which allows him to maintain ninth place overall and keep in touch with the Top 5, which at the next ranking update will be 385 points away.