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Italian Lorenzo Musetti was on the verge of an early loss in his European Open debut in Hamburg on Monday afternoon, but the #NextGenATP Italian dug in to come back from behind 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6- 3 against Serbian Dusan Lajovic at the ATP 500 event.
It is the first victory for the 20-year-old since May, when he came through qualifying before defeating Ilya Ivashka and Sebastian Korda en route to the third round at the Mutua Madrid Open. Despite trying to find the best of him, Musetti showed admirable resilience on Monday in Hamburg, where he saved a match point when serving at 4-5 and then again at 5-6 in the second set of his first match.
ATP Head2Head meeting with Lajovic. After taking the second set tie-break, Musetti grabbed the only break of the decider to seal a hard-fought victory lasting two hours and 56 minutes. Victory over World No. 75 Lajovic will be a boost for the Italian, currently ranked fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, as he looks to qualify for November's Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals on home soil for the second time.
Musetti, now 14-16 in the 2022 season, will face third-seeded Diego Schwartzman or Emil Ruusuvuori in the second round in Germany as he pursues his fourth quarterfinal appearance this year on tour. The Hamburg European Open features 32 top singles players and 16 doubles pairs and is one of 13 ATP 500 events on the calendar.
The tournament takes place in the heart of Hamburg at the Rothenbaum Tennis Center, crowned by a stadium with a retractable roof. Rafael Nadal, undoubtedly, has established himself not only as the best player in the tennis realm but also as the most resilient one.
Nadal loves sports
At 36, Rafael Nadal is still going strong and is expected to further improve his tally of a record 22 Grand Slam titles. "Surely one day I will be a former elite athlete, but I will always be an athlete because sport is my passion and I will practice it whenever my body allows it.
And I will always be involved with the structure, which is a project that we started a few years ago and that is gaining more and more strength," the Mallorca native said. Ahead of the US Open, John McEnroe praises Rafa’s strong will and passion.
He said, “I’ve never seen anyone like him”. He compared the player with the legendary tennis player Jimmy Connors. McEnroe said, “I thought Jimmy Connors tried hard until I saw Rafael Nadal, this is insane”.
Jimmy Connors won eight grand slam titles and is a former world no. 1 player and a stark opponent of McEnroe.