Lorenzo Musetti injured: the painful announcement, how he is and how long he will be absent
Lorenzo Musetti is forced to stop, due to a rectus femoris injury. The Carrara-based tennis player learned of the injury on Tuesday, after the match he lost at the Internazionali d’Italia against Casper Ruud. Already on that occasion, the Italian had appeared not at his best and particularly nervous on the clay court of the Foro Italico in Rome. On Wednesday then came the truth, via a long post in which he also announced his absence at a very important appointment in the course of the season such as Roland Garros.
“After yesterday’s match,” Musetti wrote in a post published on his official Instagram account, “I underwent medical examinations that showed a rectus femoris injury, which will force me to a few weeks of rest and recovery. Unfortunately, this prevents me from participating in the tournaments in Hamburg and Roland Garros, news that weighs heavily on me.”
“Thank you very much to the public in Rome for the extraordinary affection: it was the reason why, although not at 100 percent, I wanted to take the court and give everything in my home tournament. I will keep you updated,” Musetti concluded in his message. His words make it even clearer to the fans what happened at the Rome Internationals both in the performance and in the behavior of the Tuscan during the defeat against Ruud.
Signs of the physical problem had already emerged during the tournament. In the round of 16 match against Ruud, won by the Norwegian with a clear 6-3, 6-1 in just one hour and 17 minutes, Musetti had requested a medical timeout at 3-0 in the second set to have his left thigh treated, the same problem that had already affected him in the previous round against Francisco Cerundolo. Despite on-court treatment, the Carrara native had failed to reverse the inertia of the match, surrendering in a heavy partial that did not reflect his true worth.
And yet Musetti had made it to the round of 16 after overcoming obstacles that were anything but easy. On Friday night he had beaten Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard with a double 6-4, almost always keeping control of the game. Then had come the challenge with Cerundolo, resolved in two hours and fourteen minutes with a score of 7-6(7), 6-4 in a very tight match, with the tie-break of the first set decided only on 9-7 after canceling a set point to the Argentine. A run that had raised hopes of equaling, if not improving on, the best result achieved in Rome, that is, last year’s semifinal before the loss to Carlos Alcaraz.
The situation was also commented on by Adriano Panatta, who had already followed Musetti’s path at the Foro Italico closely. After his victory over Cerundolo, the Italian tennis legend had expressed appreciation for the Carrarino’s performance: “I’m sorry that he has some physical problems with his left thigh. Today he suffered a lot and was very tried at the end of the match. However, he beat Cerundolo who is a really very tough player on clay. If you win against him like that it means you are a real player. And Lorenzo absolutely is.”
The forfeit also weighs heavily in psychological terms, considering statements made by Musetti himself on the eve of the tournament. The tennis player had admitted that he was arriving in Rome “with fewer matches than last year and with less confidence,” pointing precisely to the warmth of the Roman public as the main factor to leverage on. “I would love to feel the affection of the fans, especially the younger ones: they are the ones who make me wake up every morning and push me to always seek the best, as a player and as a boy.” Words that, reread today, explain even better his choice to take the field despite his precarious physical condition in order not to disappoint his audience.
