Flawless Musetti double bagels Nardi in Monte-Carlo, setting round of 16 clash with Djokovic

No 16 seed Lorenzo Musetti was ruthless against Italian qualifier Luca Nardi on Wednesday in Monte-Carlo. The world No 21 thrashed the Italian teen 6-0, 6-0 to reach the last 16 of the Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Country Club on Wednesday.

Musetti dropped just 19 games in the entire 51-minute encounter as he recorded the first double bagel of his career and the first 6-0 6-0 victory at Monte-Carlo since Alex Corretja in 1997 (d. Nuno Marques, round one).

He will face Novak Djokovic in round of 16 action at Monte-Carlo on Thursday.

He’s still No. 1 in the world. He started the year I think pretty well, winning another Australian Open (smiling), you know, winning a lot of matches. Even if being out for a month or even more, he’s still Novak.

— Lorenzo Musetti

19 points won in 51 minutes for Nardi

There was a break point in the second game of the match for Nardi, the 19-year-old world No 159, but he never got another look and ended up winning just eight return points in the contest.

Worse, Nardi only on 11 points on serve as Musetti converted 6 of 7 break points to improve to 8-8 on the season.

Home cooking a plus

Musetti, who makes his home in Monte-Carlo, says that he feels extra energy when he plays so close to home.

“I live here, so I feel at home,” he said. “I’m staying home, and it’s really nice to come back home, to have dinner with my girlfriend, to relax. Maybe those kind of things help me to find the right balance inside the court.

“Hopefully tomorrow I will stay like this, especially on the mental part and will be probably one of the toughest match in the draw, so hopefully I can be ready for tomorrow.”

Need to have the “right mentality” against Djokovic

Musetti was asked about Djokovic’s comments about needing time to find his game on clay each season. Djokovic had some challenging moments during his 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Russian qualifier Ivan Gakhov on Tuesday.

The Italian said he isn’t reading into it too much.

“He’s still No. 1 in the world,” he said. “He started the year I think pretty well, winning another Australian Open (smiling), you know, winning a lot of matches. Even if being out for a month or even more, he’s still Novak. So I have to be ready to beat the No. 1 in the world, not one guy who needs to prepare the clay season.

“I have to enter the court with the right mentality, with the right mindset to beat the No. 1 in the world, not to beat someone who is preparing the clay season.”

Lorenzo Musetti beat Serb Miomir Kecmanovic (7-6 (1), 6-0) in the previous round of the Monte-Carlo tournament.

During the first round of the Monte-Carlo tournament, Nardi, ranked No 159, won against Monégasque wildcard Valentin Vacherot (7-5, 7-5).

Monte-Carlo Masters, other second-round results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 5.779.335, most recent results first):

• Dominic Thiem vs. Holger Rune
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Taylor Fritz vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Ilya Ivashka vs. Karen Khachanov
• Diego Schwartzman vs. Jannik Sinner
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Jiri Lehecka: wednesday
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Alexei Popyrin: wednesday
• Casper Ruud (4) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 7-5, 7-6 (1)
• Jan-Lennard Struff (Q) beat Alex De Minaur (14): 6-3, 6-2
• Alexander Zverev (13) beat Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-4, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) beat Benjamin Bonzi: 4-1 ret.
• Hubert Hurkacz (10) beat Jack Draper: 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-5
• Novak Djokovic beat Ivan Gakhov (Q): 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Jaume Munar: 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

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