Lorenzo Musetti is in the midst of a dream week at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, but also a grueling one. It will only get tougher when the 19-year-old faces No. 1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals on Friday night.
Musetti had to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw, even losing his first set in qualifying to a Mexican wild card Juan Alejandro Hernandez. After getting into the field of 32, the Italian defeated Diego Schwartzman, Frances Tiafoe, and Grigor Dimitrov to earn his place in the last four. The first two were marathon three-setters and Musetti beat Dimitrov 6-4, 7-6(3) on Thursday night.
“It’s incredible really; I didn’t expect this,” said the world No. 120, who will break into the top 100 for this first time in his career next week. “Today I think I played the best match in my life. Grigor is an incredible opponent; a great fighter. Even today, I had a lot of match points and (it) was really difficult for my coach.”
Tsitsipas had brief difficulty getting into the semis. After destroying both Benoit Paire and John Isner, the 22-year-old Greek ran into trouble against Felix Auger-Aliassime but managed to survive 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Despite that battle, Tsitsipas will obviously have far more left in the tank for this one than Musetti. The world No. 5 is also going up against an opponent who as never been to an ATP final, and this is just Musetti’s second-ever appearance in a semi.
The underdog should make this entertaining for a while, but Tsitsipas will likely pull away for a straight-set victory.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
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