Lorenzo Musetti has a bold response to Alexander Zverev’s remarks about the Italian’s game. The two tennis stars recently faced each other in Rome and are now in a battle of words after Zverev’s comments about the Italian’s playing style.
Musetti and Zverev locked horns at the Italian Open quarterfinals on Thursday, May 15. Despite being in the lead in the opening set, the German lost the game 6(1)-7, 4-6. After the match, Zverev criticized his opponent’s playing style, implying the World No.8 was a passive player who waited for his opponents to make mistakes.
Now, Lorenzo Musetti has hit back at Zverev, telling Ubitennis:
“Does he think I’m too cautious? If he wants, he can do it too. We also played on other surfaces and the result was the same.”
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During the Italian Open quarterfinals, Alexander Zverev also criticised the quality of the balls. He said in his post-match conference:
"Of course, for me, for my game style, today was not easy because at the end of the day, I'm still somebody who tries to play aggressively. I'm still somebody who tries to serve very fast. That's how it is. It's difficult to get free points today.”
Speaking about Musetti’s game style, the World No.2 went on to add:
“I think he plays similarly when he plays on clay all the time. He depends a lot on defense. He depends a lot on the mistakes of other opponents. Today was difficult for me to hit winners. It was very slow, very, very heavy."
Overall, in the head-to-head record between Musetti and Zverev, the Italian leads the count 3-1. The last time Zverev beat Musetti was at the 2022 ATP Madrid Masters 1000.
Lorenzo Musetti falls to Carlos Alcaraz at the Italian Open
Lorenzo Musetti began his campaign at the Italian Open in a dominant fashion, taking down Otto Virtanen and Brandon Nakashima with ease in his opening matches. For his Round of 16 encounter, the home favorite faced 10th seed Daniil Medvedev and pulled through 7-5, 6-4 after a closely fought battle.
The World No.8 then beat Alexander Zverev to set up a semifinal clash with Carlos Alcaraz. The Italian headed into the match trailing 1-4 in the duo's head-to-head records.
On Friday, May 16, despite a cheering home crowd, Lorenzo Musetti was handed his fifth consecutive defeat to Alcaraz, as the Spaniard claimed a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory.
With this, Carlos Alcaraz moved into the finals of the Italian Open, where he will face World No.1 Jannik Sinner.
