Stefanos Tsitsipas edged past Lorenzo Musetti 7-5 7-5 at 1.43 am in the night to reach the quarter finals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Tsitsipas beat Lorenzo Sonego in the afternoon and Lorenzo Musetti in a match that began shortly before midnight.
Tsitssipas broke serve in the first game of the opening set. Musetti faced two break-back points in the fourth game and another break point in the sixth game, but Tsitsipas was not able to convert his chances. Musetti broke back in the seventh game and held on serve at love to draw level to 4-4. Both players went on serve until the 10th game when Tsitsipas broke serve at 15 to win the first set 7-5.
Musetti started the second set with an immediate break in the first game to open up a 3-1 lead. Tsitsipas broke straight back to 30 in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Musetti saved four match points at 4-5, but Tsitsipas broke serve at 15 on his fifth match point to seal the win after 1 hour and 51 minutes. Tsitsipas has extended his lead in his head-to-head matches against Musetti to 5-0.
“It was a very long day. I will tell that. I spent the whole day at the courts. It had to be done. The rain got in the way, so I am happy that the day ends like this. I put a great effort there today. Tonight actually, not today. It’s been wonderful, delightful to be playing this way. I think tomorrow is a day off, so I have go to recharge and focus on the next one”, said Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas set up a semifinal match against last year’s Cincinnati Masters 1000 champion Borna Coric, who came back to beat Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan 3-6 6-4 6-3. Coric advanced his second consecutive Masters 1000 quarter final after reaching the semifinals in Madrid.
Marozsan converted his third break point in the second game and held his next service games to win the first set 6-3. Coric saved two break points in the fifth game before breaking serve in the 10th game to close out the second set 6-4. The third set went on serve until the sixth game when Coric rallied from 30-40 down to earn the decisive break for 4-2. Coric saved a break point to hold serve at deuce before serving out the win on his first match point.
Coric leads 3-2 in his five head-to-head matches against Tsitsipas.
