French Open: Novak Djokovic benefits from the abandonment of Lorenzo Musetti
Novak Djokovic is in the quarter-finals of the French Open 2021. The world number one fought back from a 2-0 set deficit against Italian youngster Lorenzo Musettiand now meets Matteo Berrettini . Musetti had to give up in the fifth set when the score was 0: 4 due to injury.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jun 07, 2021, 04:59 pm
For almost two and a half hours at the Philippe-Chatrier court, it was not really possible to tell who of these two athletes is now the world's number one, the 18-time Grand Slam winner, who is 15 years more experienced. Novak Djokovic, whom those three attributes describe, had to fight hard with his 19-year-old opponent, made an unusually large number of unforced errors - and was also confronted with a veritable flood of winners from the Italian.
The consequence: the first two rounds went completely surprisingly in two tiebreaks to Lorenzo Musetti, who was suddenly only one set away from what was by far the greatest success of his career. How difficult it is then against a Djokovic brand to take this final step was impressively demonstrated in the coming minutes.
Djokovic inviolable
A visibly annoyed Djokovic used the pause in sentences to leave the place briefly - and returned to that very place as if out of place. Djokovic should then need just 40 minutes to equalize the set with 6: 1 and 6: 0. The impressive statistics: Musetti only managed to win four points in the fourth round, the class difference on paper was now also evident on the pitch.
Now it was the Italian who looked visibly exhausted in the last few minutes, who took a break and completed a medical time-out. A first long break in this game, after Musetti had even left the seat to have his back massaged. The key at the Philippe-Chatrier court shouldn't really change much: Djokovic got the break right in the first game - after winning a point at the start of the set - and now really made no more moves, here any doubts whether to want to let the outcome of this game arise.
All in all, it should be enough for the Italian, who also seemed to lose his groin in the fifth set, after the 2-0 set lead for a single game win. Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, showed an almost flawless performance in sets three, four and five and ultimately made it into the round of the last eight.
In the quarter-finals, Novak Djokovic will now face the Italian Matteo Berrettini, who benefited from Roger Federe's withdrawal from the tournament and made it to the last eight without a fight.
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