Lorenzo Musetti earned his first win of the season on Wednesday at the Tata Open Maharashtra, where the #NextGenATP Italian defeated Australian Aleksandar Vukic 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3.
“Aleksandar was playing good, he was serving really big and I tried to stay calm even in the second set, [which] I didn’t win. It didn’t go the way that I planned. But the third set was a really great set,” Musetti said. “I stayed really focussed with the right attitude and I won a great match with a tough opponent. I’m really happy to be here and to be in the quarter-finals.”
The 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals competitor is into his first tour-level quarter-final since Lyon last May. The 19-year-old is pursuing his first ATP Tour title this week.
Musetti will face a tough test in the last eight against Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak. The ATP Cup star, who won all three of his No. 2 singles matches for his country in this year’s group stage, eliminated Frenchman Quentin Halys 6-3, 7-6(7).
In other action, three-time ATP Tour titlist Joao Sousa battled through to the quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory against third seed Gianluca Mager of Italy. The Portuguese star has climbed as high as No. 28 in the ATP Rankings.
Sousa will next play German Daniel Altmaier, who clawed past Moldovan Radu Albot 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The fifth seed is into his first ATP Tour quarter-final on hard courts.