Musetti: “I don’t want to think about anything else. I believe in the anti-doping fight”
The Italian spoke about his success this summer, how fatherhood changed his tennis, and the doping case of his compatriot Jannik Sinner, during the UTS event in Frankfurt.
Zuma/Panoramic
Before his first match at the UTS event in Frankfurt, Lorenzo Musetti confirmed what everybody in the tennis world is thinking right now: “For sure this has been my best season so far. From the start of the grass season until the Olympics, it was a crazy time.“
The Italian No 2 reached the semi-final of Wimbledon and won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics. “It goes really fast. You have to enjoy the moment. When I won the medal I felt strong emotions, it was really emotional on the podium alongside Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. In this moment I realised what I achieved. Now I have it inside me but I can’t recreate the moment.”
Musetti: “The Tour is difficult for the emotions”
Musetti further explained: “The Tour is difficult for the emotions. We live in a society that happens really fast. Life can change really quick. We must not take everything as a god-given guarantee. I was blessed with the birth of my first child this year. That is still the biggest achievement I have made so far.”
Musetti’s family travels with him whenever it is possible. “The family is with me here. They came with us to New York, too. It was the first big flight for the little one.”
“I deal differently with things on and off the court as a father”
Lorenzo Musetti
Musetti says fatherhood changed him. “I deal differently with things on and off the court. Being a father can help a lot also on a tennis court. I felt that on my skin. The patience you need as a father you can compare it with the patience you need on the tennis court.”
Musetti’s last goal in the 2024 season: The Davis Cup Finals in Malaga (19 to 24 November). “In Davis Cup I always give 200 percent and we had an amazing run last year and with the squad we have we want to repeat the victory.”
In the Davis Cup, Musetti will play alongside his compatriot Jannik Sinner. Sinner’s doping case has made worldwide headlines over the last months. After the International Tennis Integrity Agency ITIA stated in its decision that Sinner made “no fault or negligence”, there is no general suspicion of Italian tennis players and athletes. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) then confirmed in late September it lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case.
“It is WADA’s view that the finding of “no fault or negligence” was not correct under the applicable rules. WADA is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years. WADA is not seeking a disqualification of any results, save that which has already been imposed by the tribunal of first instance,” the agency stated.
38 Italian athletes in different sports have tested positive for the substance Clostebol
Before the Sinner case was all over the news, a long read from doping expert Edmund Willison on his newsletter stated that between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes in different sports have tested positive for the substance Clostebol despite the fact it is scarcely produced in oral or injectable form by pharmaceutical companies.
Part of the report were cases of two Italian junior tennis players, just 17 years old at the time. The report stated that they tested positive for Clostebol within three months of each other. One of the minors, Matilde Paoletti, who played at the Junior French Open, was training at the Olympic training centre in Formia in 2021, the year she was caught. The other minor, Mariano Tammaro, was a top ranked world junior, and in 2021 was training under the national team coach.
Confronted with the report and the number of 38 Clostebol cases in Italy within the last years, Musetti said: “Most of the other cases did not come from tennis players. There were a few. If there would have been 38 cases of tennis players that probably would go in a way that you could think there is something suspicious.“
Musetti further said: “But on our level I know only Jannik (Sinner) got tested positive for this substance. So we don’t have to take away all the good parts of the Italian tennis movement because of this. There are a lot of controls and there is a lot of transparency in this sport. And I don’t want to think about anything else. I believe in the anti-doping fight.”
