Playing in front of a home crowd at the Foro Italico is a dream for any Italian player, but for Lorenzo Musetti, his recent match was quite a test. In his Round of 32 clash at the 2026 Italian Open, the No. 8-seed Musetti squared off against Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo.
After the nearly two-and-a-half-hour-long match, Musetti won 7-6 (9), 6-4, and collapsed in tears on the clay.
Lorenzo Musetti Survives Physical ‘Suffering’ to Seal Emotional Rome Masters Win
Reflecting on his physical struggles after the win on Tennis Channel, the 24-year-old shared, “I think there was a lot of up and down throughout the match. In general, I think we both played some games really well, and others maybe had a little too many unfortunate errors. But I managed to go through the pain and the suffering, and at the end, also some cramps.”
Musetti added that having his family in the player’s box made the victory sweeter.
“So I’m really happy, and it was an emotional win for me that I shared with the crowd, with my box, and with my family that was there. The kids and my parents and some close friends… they’re always screaming from the stands and I can recognize the voices of of themselves.”
For Musetti, playing under high pressure while managing a failing body forced him to keep a tight lid on his emotions until the job was finally done. Musetti said, “I kept all the emotion in during the match because I didn’t want to explode, and then at the end, it was kind of a liberation for me to free it up a little bit and share what I felt. It was, in a certain way, tears of joy [brought on] by the frustration, pressure, and also the physical part that I was not happy about; that I was dealing with some problems and issues. From the beginning, I fought ’til the end, and that was the key of today’s match.”
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Musetti has a history of such recurring physical challenges, leading to high-profile retirements, particularly in long, high-stakes matches. He retired against Carlos Alcaraz at the 2025 French Open due to a left leg injury. In the Australian Open this year, he survived a five-set thriller against Tomáš Macháč and dispatched Taylor Fritz to reach the quarter-finals before being forced to withdraw against Novak Djokovic due to a leg injury.
He reached the quarter-finals at the Barcelona Open (losing to Arthur Fils) and the Round of 16 at the Mutua Madrid Open (losing to Jiří Lehečka).
Now, Musetti looks to recover quickly. His upcoming Round of 16 match is against Casper Ruud, and it will put his physical resilience to the ultimate test once again.
