“Could be the best performance of the season”: Musetti pleased with Norrie win
Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti has described his straight sets win over No 14 seed Cam Norrie as one of his best performances of the year, and is feeling good about heading into a fourth-round encounter against Carlos Alcaraz
Musetti at Roland-Garros, 2023 AI / Reuters / Panoramic
Scheduled as the third match on Court Simonne-Mathieu for day six of Roland-Garros, many were circling Lorenzo Musetti vs Cam Norrie as a match to watch.
With both men proficient on clay and seeded No 14 and No 17, this was being billed as one of the best third-round match ups. And yet, Lorenzo Musetti made light work of Cam Norrie, dispatching the Brit in a little over two hours for a dominant 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 scoreline.
Musetti has labelled the victory one of his best performances of the season, and looks forward to the challenge ahead of him in the round of 16.
Musetti happy to win ugly at Roland-Garros 2023
Defeating any seed in straight sets in an accomplishment, let alone when they’re a former world No 8 with a record of 29-10 for the season.
When asked if this was his best match on clay this year, Lorenzo Musetti responded:
“Well, I mean, yeah. I don’t know if I can consider that the most beautiful, but probably the last two matches are really a great performance. So probably, yes, it’s confirmation of the great form that I’m expressing on court.
“Yeah, could be best performance of the season.”
Focus the key for Musetti moving forward
Despite the wide margin of victory, Lorenzo Musetti has pinpointed improvements off the back of his third-round performance that will be needed moving forward.
“Well, probably start to play more, I mean, start to focus in on each point.
“I think today I had the really one hour and a half really of straight tennis at this and really good energy. Had a little bit of struggle in the third set where Cameron showed up and we had to face again, because, I mean, it was going in a certain way the match.”
“Probably I was a little bit more relaxed, so he started to come back in the match.”
Inspirational Alcaraz up next for Musetti
Lorenzo Musetti won’t be able to afford any moments of relaxation in his round of 16 clash, as he plays world No 1 and top seed Carlos Alcaraz for a spot in the quarter-finals.
The Italian is feeling positive about the match up, describing Alcaraz as both a friend and an inspiration.
“I see a friend. I see that he started a way, a new generation. He’s the first Grand Slam title after the big three, so I think it’s sort of inspiration for us, for me, Holger, Jannik, and whoever is behind him, and trying to push him away and trying to get closer.”
The No 17 seed will also take inspiration from the fact that the last time these two met, it was Musetti who came out on top in Hamburg 2022.
“I think that the match in Hamburg gave me a lot of confidence, especially on this side. So hopefully we will go to the match – of course it’s a complete different position, different status, but I think we will enjoy, in this case, our match.”
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