Musetti survives Koepfer scare in Stuttgart

Lorenzo Musetti reached his third tour-level grass-court quarter-final on Wednesday at the BOSS OPEN, where he clawed past Germany’s Dominik Koepfer 6-7(9), 7-6(5), 6-3.

The fifth-seeded Italian failed to convert five set points in the first set and then rallied from 3/5 in the second-set tie-break to stay alive in Stuttgart. He struck 15 winners in the third set to advance after two hours and 49 minutes.

“It was a really, really tough match,” Musetti said. “We saw two hours and a half of really good tennis. Dominik was playing really, really well… We were fighting until the end and I am really proud of myself.”

[ATP APP]

With his 13th win of the season, Musetti levelled his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Koepfer at 1-1. The No. 30 player in the PIF ATP Rankings also reached the quarter-finals in Stuttgart last year and will aim to go one step further this week when he next plays third seed Alexander Bublik or the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF champion Hamad Medjedovic.

Musetti is chasing his first title of the season this week with his best results in 2024 fourth-round runs in Miami and Monte-Carlo.

[NEWSLETTER FORM]