Lorenzo Musetti’s losing finals is becoming an unpleasant syndrome. Not even the Hong Kong tournament, the first 250 of the year, brought him a victory. Aleksandr Bublik lifts the trophy with a score of 7-6 6-3. With a sore arm, Carrarino wasted something in the first set. He suffered too much, in addition to the Kazakh’s great serve, his two-handed down-the-line backhand. Bublik enters the top 10 and for some time he seems different from the “jester” seen on the circuit in recent years. No physical collapse in the second set: he fought in defense like never before and so the “curse” continues for the Italian.

The title has been missing since 2022

The plate is still crying: “Muso” is desperately looking for a title that he has been missing since 2022, when he won the tournaments in Hamburg and Naples. Since then, losing finals have become an obsession. In his career he has won 2 out of 9, the same score as Juventus in the Champions League finals. Much sowing, little harvest. Came out as a loser in the last seven – a sports drama that is becoming a mental and emotional roadblock. In between, it should be underlined, he can still admire two Davis Cups and an Olympic bronze in his personal showcase.

Top 5

The tennis player from Carrara, however, thanks to the final in Hong Kong, overtakes the Australian Alex De Minaur and jumps to fifth place in the ATP rankings, a result that, among the Azzurri, only Jannik Sinner and Adriano Panatta, since the advent of the modern scoring system, had managed to achieve. At 23 years old this is a good starting point for a player who does not at all represent the prototype tennis player of 2026. He is not a baseline bomber and this penalizes him, playing “old-fashioned” tennis. For this reason it is loved by enthusiasts all over the world.

Few points to defend, he can dream

The ATP ranking rewards consistency and commitment: Musetti has plenty to spare. While his more high-ranking colleagues Sinner and Alcaraz go “to the checkout” in South Korea, he is already on the pitches trying to get as many points as possible. Up to the red clay of Monte Carlo there aren’t many to defend, so you can dare and dream in this new tennis year.

Off the pitch, although very young, he is a fulfilled man: he recently became the father of his second son Leandro, who arrived after Ludovico, both of whom he had with his partner Veronica Confalonieri. Short arm in the decisive moments of the finals, courageous in life. Ten years ago he would have been the cover man of Italian sport. However, playing in Sinner’s shadow helps him, rather than penalizes him, as long as he doesn’t find him in his path (he is better off in the duel with Alcaraz). The pressure is all on the South Tyrolean, even if Musetti often puts it on himself. If Jannik had been born a few kilometers further from the border, we would now be crying out for a miracle for an Italian top 5.

The gods of tennis have been generous to us fans: with this generation have arrived Italian players for all tastes and Musetti certainly satisfies, paying with the price of a few too many lost finals, the lovers of an aesthetic of the technical gesture that has been very lost in the evolution of the game. We give you Jannik, but also Muso: are you happy? Certainly. Could you want more? Yes, appetite comes with eating and we are greedy: it would be nice to see, in 2026, Flavio Cobolli close to the top 10 and Matteo Berrettini’s return to the top 20. Is this asking too much?

A challenger?

The real feat, in this tennis of shooting, for “Muso”, is to remain at the top with that backhand and, hopefully, bring home a 1000 title. Also because, currently, there isn’t much else behind the two phenomena. Nole Djokovic continues his very long “farewell tour”, Sasha Zverev is as usual dealing with the demons in his head, Holger Rune is coming off a bad injury. The growth of the Brazilian João Fonseca and the Czech Jakub Menšík must be monitored, together with the precarious physical condition of Jack Draper, but Lorenzo “the magnificent” – provided he overcomes this obstacle, often mental in the finals – can seriously establish himself as the most capable challenger of the two champions.