We devotees of the racket of this peninsula not on the other yesterday we are easily recognizable, on the street, on the metro, in the bars and even in the plants. How to identify us? We are constantly looking for someone who gives us a pinch, a bracpellotto, because for at least four years, in an unimaginable crescendo, we have been witnessing events that have all the characteristics of a daydream.

We do not only have the number 1 in the world, which collects Major on Major, Wimbledon runs out with the authority of the largest in history and crushes any Bublik the steps by shooting. The primacy in the standings may also lose, because Wada has decided to stop it for three months, but Jannik Sinner today makes another sport.

The god of tennis as regards gifts against us, however, wanted to exaggerate. In fact, the best tennis player, because there is no one who knows how to draw tennis such as Lorenzo Musetti, was so benevolent to deliver us, after the strongest player. For at least a couple of years we have wondered who can enter the rivalry between Jannik and Alcaraz. Zverev, Medvedev, Rune, Draper, perhaps Fonseca will arrive … for the moment everyone postponed. For four months now (but let’s not forget Wimbledon and 2024 Olympics) the most credible candidate is Carrara’s champion. We listened for 24 hours of how much the regularity of Munar could put it in difficulty. Then the game began and after five minutes the difference between Musetti and the Spanish honest, or the same that separates the McLaren of Piastri from the Ferrari of Hamilton: Abyssal, emerged. Lorenzo is the human being closest to Roger Federer. And since “great responsibilities derive from great powers”, the divine “muzzle” cannot be satisfied, even tomorrow, when in the quarterfinals of New York, in the immense Arthur Ashe Stadium, it will challenge the number 1 in the world.

The previous ones

We had “touched” the great challenge both in Rome and Roland Garros this season, but on both occasions Alcaraz had stopped Musetti on the eve of the final and therefore of the blue derby. Jannik and Lorenzo have faced each other twice at ATP level (Anversa 2021, indoor concrete, and on the red of Montecarlo in 2023) and has always won the South Tyrolean in two sets.

However, fans remember another precedent, unofficial, but which represented the dawn of the new era of Italian tennis. Rome, May 8, 2019, semifinal of the prequalification tournament: a Wild Card at the main draw of the imminent internationals of Italy at stake. Sinner has recently entered the top 300, Musetti is back from the victory at the Australian Open Juniores and the number 1 armchair in the world. Scenario of the dispute the mythological stadium Nicola Pietrangeli.

True game and, although both are still looking for a precise game identity, the clash between different styles is evident. Lorenzo arrives two points from the victory in the tie-break of the second set, but Sinner, who escaped the danger, imposes himself in the final fraction by asserting a wealth of greater experience among the greats, shaped with the victory in the Challenger of Bergamo and in the ITF of Trento and Santa Margherita di Pula.

Just over six years have passed and the world of tennis has been upset. Federer and Nadal are retired, Djokovic resists in the top ten, but has abdicated: the throne and great events are no longer a land for conquest for the Serbian.

In the exit from the blocks to collect the legacy of the Big Three, the fastest to exit was Carlitos Alcaraz, but our Sinner, with the headlights off, put the arrow and made the void. This year, after the encore in Melbourne and the forced-concordate stop, he made final in Rome and Paris, a short run-in Halle, victory in Wimbledon and final in Cincinnati. A monster. The victory suffered against Shapovalov’s intermittence talent, in the third round of these US Open, however, has opened a very small glimmer and is in those few centimeters that Musetti will try to enter.

Sinner favored, but …

The numbers of the last two seasons say that defeating Sinner on concrete is one of the most difficult challenges of this sport. In the last 20 months they have only succeeded Alcaraz (three times) and Rublev. The others collected crumbs or a little more. Like Roger on the grass, Rafa on Red and Case on the tough, now Jannik is the point of reference for everyone, the metro with which to measure level and ambitions. The more difficult the challenge is and the more sinner he manages to raise the level of his game. So why should Lorenzo Musetti believe in the company? Let’s try to answer. First. Nobody in the circuit plays like him. Not even Alcaraz, who also has an infinite technical background. Flavio Cobolli said: “Sometimes Lorenzo does not even realize his qualities”.

When he has his feet near the line he can command anyone and from afar he is one of the best to defend himself. The variations are then the specialty of the house: dampened, Lungolinea reverse to close the point or in the slice to move the opponent and remove the rhythm, descended to the net and whoever has more, the more he puts it. Second. Its growth from a mental point of view. Step by step, the pupil of the Super Coach Simone Tartarini has never stopped growing and adding solutions and continuity to his tennis. The shot forward in this 2025 was remarkable everywhere, but sensational from the point of view of the mental seal and the attitude on the rectangle of play. So much to face one like Sinner on par? Difficult, but the clear feeling is that for the great appointments and the most important trophies of the next few years Jannik and Carlitos will also have to deal with Musetti. And we just have to enjoy the show with the awareness that of the three best tennis players in the world, two are Italian.