There are those who play tennis and then there is Lorenzo Musetti. We do not know how many titles and medals will pack during his career, but we know the emotions that he manages to give on that rectangle, especially when he tinged red, where every point is to be taken with the heart and arm.

In an era of tennis where power, rhythm, balance, physicality and attitude are essential characteristics to emerge, the tennis that knows this boy from Carrara is the closer thing to the great champions of the past. And it is no coincidence that the best results so far of his young career have arrived in two temples of this sport. Semi-final in Wimbledon, Finale in Monte-Carlo: the Vatican of Tennis and the Red Land of the Royal.

Not just an infinite talent

The work will always beat the “only” talent. But in the last week Musetti has shown, to himself before all the others, which is not just a reverse that rhymes with poetry and rabbits pulled out of the cylinder (the dampened on the set point of the first set is not of this planet). With its characteristics, with the ability to accept high, Bassi and Scleri, its place must not be on the edge of the Empire of Sinner and the Spanish antagonist. He can be up there, he can knock on that club because he has all the credentials to be part of it.

After a week of comebacks and magic, the final in the Principality with the Alcaraz phenomenon had the most unfair epilogue: injuring himself at the beginning of the third set (but coach Tartarini explained that Lorenzo was not already well in the second), it is like losing the world cup wrong the decisive penalty. However, what has lost with that muscle annoyance – the possibility of winning his first title 1000 – is much lower than what he has earned in this Monegasque stage. Schooling after an initial 1-6 against Lehecka (28 ATP), Tsitsipas (number 8 and three mountain titles) and Minaur (n. 10), is a sort of degree in Honorem from a mental point of view. Now Lorenzo has tried on his skin that it is possible to get out of the mobile sands. You can challenge the best players in the world with your head held high. A match is possible to start a match and go up. Because if you don’t listen to the part of you who want to give up, but only the one that whispers to you “You can do it”then there are no games that cannot be resumed. Especially if you know how to paint tennis like few others.

Winning binomial with Simone Tartarini

We cannot speak of Lorenzo, without appointing Simone Tartarini. The microphone in the corner of coach Spezia during the direct matches, also allowed the least accustomed to understand the importance of Tartarini in the growth and evolution of Musetti. The two have known each other since Lorenzo, an eight -year -old boy, enters Spezia’s tennis club for the first time, where Tartarini trains. It is 2010. Together they exceed every stage: the first Tennis Europe tournaments, the ITF, the victory at the Australian Open Juniores, the round of 16 in Rome just eighteen, the two hours of monstrous tennis against Djokovic at Roland Garros 2021, the success in Hamburg in the final against Alcaraz, until the consecration of the last year, between the semifinal on the London and Bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. There are no perfect teams, but the Musetti-Tartarini binomial is a story to be protected like the Panda.

Now the top 10

The Monte-Carlo final gives Lorenzo the best ranking of number 11 in the world with 3,200 points in the standings, just 15 less than Casper Rudud, relegated to tenth square. Conti in hand, despite Lorenzo’s tortefait at the ATP 500 in Barcelona, ​​entry into the top ten could be a matter of days or at most weeks. Ruud himself (who took place last year in Catalonia) and Rublev (victory in 1000 of Madrid in 2024) have important bills that expire in April. Musetti is therefore one step away from being the Italian sixth in the history of the ATP ranking – that is, from 23 August 1973 to today – to occupy a place in the exclusive club of the first ten. In almost 52 years the only blues to succeed were Panatta, Barazzutti, Fognini, Berrettini and Sinner. It would be a stop to scream, not a final milestone: the Monte-Carlo museti cannot put limits.