Italian Next Gen star Lorenzo Musetti has broken into the top 100 for the first time in his career at world number 94.
The 19-year player from Carrara has improved his best ranking by 26 spots from from world number 120 to number 94 after reaching his first ATP 500 semifinal at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco as a qualifier. He becomes the youngest player in the top 100.
In Acapulco Musetti won three qualifying matches before scoring three-set wins over number 3 seed Diego Schwartzman and Frances Tiafoe. In the quarter final he won his sixth match of the week against Grigor Dimitrov on his seventh match point.
“It’s a dream come true. Since I was a kid, I hoped and I dreamed to be one day top 100 and to enter world number 100. Finally I got. It‘s incredible. It’s really tough to describe how I feel now. A lot of my goals have come true tonight. I performed really well and I am proud of myself. It was the best week of my life. I came here to playing qualifying and of course I wanted to get through it and gain some points and experience. I did not expect to reach the semifinals here. I am really excited about this and about how I am playing”. said Musetti.
Musetti started the 2020 season ranked world number 357 at the start of the 2020 season and world number 280 when the tour resumed last August after the five-month shutdown.
He made a major breakthrough at the Rome Internazionali BNL d’Italia last September when he reached the third round at a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career after claiming wins over top ten players Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori. He became the first player born in 2002 to win an ATP Tour match and the youngest player to reach the Rome third round since Fabrice Santoro in 1991.
Musetti defeated four top 100 players to win his first Challenger Tour title in Forlì. Three weeks later he became the world number 1 junior after winning the 2019 Australian Open boys’ singles title and reaching the 2018 US US Open boys’ singles final.
Musetti has been nicknamed “Museratti” by US tennis coach and former player Brad Gilbert, who compared the young Italian player to a Maserati car.
Italian tennis has nine players in the top 100 for the first time in history. Matteo Berrettini ended two consecutive seasons in 2019 and 2020 in the top 10 and achieved his career-high number 8 in 2019 to become highest-ranked Italian player since Corrado Barazzutti in 1978. Fabio Fognini became the first Italian player in history to win a Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo in 2019 and is still ranked world number 17. Jannik Sinner has improved his career-high to world number 31 after reaching the quarter final in Dubai. Lorenzo Sonego reached the final in Vienna after beating Novak Djokovic in the semifinal last year and is now ranked world number 34. The other players ranked inside the top 100 are Stefano Travaglia (world number 70), Salvatore Caruso (85), Marco Cecchinato (90), Musetti (94) and Andreas Seppi (97).
The 2021 edition of the Next Gen Finals in Milan could feature two Italian rising stars Jannik Sinner (winner of this tournament) and Lorenzo Musetti.
Sinner praised Musetti and predicted a great future for his younger competriot.
“Musetti is a big talent. He can do everything with the ball, so he is already physically strong. I think he is a great player”.
Musetti has been coached by Simone Tartarini since the start of his career. He considers Tartarini as his second father.
“Acapulco was a dream week. Now Lorenzo is in the top 100. It’s amazing. My heart is dead. No it’s important because we changed the schedule for the next month. It’s the first time Lorenzo has the possibility to enter the main draw of a Grand Slam. I have worked with Lorenzo for ten years. Lorenzo is a son to me. I have two sons in Italy, and Lorenzo is another son. I am another father to him. For me, Lorenzo is family”, said Simone Tartarini.