“You can never count him out and you have to kill him like 10 times” – Musetti after career-best win over Djokovic

On Thursday, playing in front of a packed partisan crowd, Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti scored the biggest win of his career with an upset over world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the round of 16 at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

After losing their first three matches, including their fourth-round clash at Roland-Garros in 2021 where the then 19-year-old led Djokovic by two sets to love, Musetti came from behind this time to complete the 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win in three hours and five minutes.

Speaking to the media after his career-best win, Musetti said he was extremely happy to get the win, especially given how tough it is to beat the Serb.

“He’s always such a unique player. You can never count him out,” the 21-year-old said. “I think somehow we were both struggling at the beginning, because the conditions were not easy to play. There was a lot of wind. Was cold. Even the balls and the conditions were completely different from the other days and from the past day. So probably I think our highest level especially in the match was at the end or at the end of the second set, and in the third set we were serving better. We were I think having more rallies, long rallies. At the end I’m happy with the win, and I didn’t focus too much on him. I just had to think of what I had to do to beat him. Even if he plays bad, he’s still the No. 1 in the world, so you can never count him out and you have to kill him like 10 times.”

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“I think I worked pretty hard in the last month to achieve these results that they are showing up today” – Musetti

After starting the year on a strong note to help Italy reach the United Cup final (wining four of his five singles matches that week), Musetti has struggled in recent weeks – winning only two matches in his seven events since then – including a five-match losing streak and losing four times to players ranked outside the top 100.

All the more reason that he was happy with the win and proud for the work that he and his team put in. “Yeah, was not such a great period for me, but even Marrakech had my chances to win against Muller, and I was one break up in the third. I started to play better compared to the last month in South America and in the States,” Musetti said. “So, I kept believing on my team, on the hard work that we are doing every day, and I tried to adjust something. I think I worked pretty hard in the last month to achieve these results that they are showing up today. I’m really proud of my team and of my family that always support me.”

Musetti will take on fellow Italian Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals on Friday with a first ATP Masters semi-final on the line for the world No 21, who has lost his only previous clash on the ATP Tour to Sinner in straight sets.

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