Jannik Sinner is the last player to join the semifinal line-up at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters after beating Lorenzo Musetti.
Yesterday, Musetti recorded the biggest win of his career when he defeated Novak Djokovic. However, as it usually is, it was difficult for him to prepare for the all-Italian battle against the seventh-seeded Sinner and their match in the Monte-Carlo Country Club was a clear reflection of that.
In the past, the two Italians met once on the ATP Tour, and Sinner won in that meeting. This time, Sinner wanted to follow up on that win to reach his maiden clay-court ATP Masters 1000 semifinals, after he played in two finals in Miami before and reached also Indian Wells semifinals.
However, Sinner never played in this stage on clay but made everything in his power to do that at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters. He started with two breaks of his opponent's serve in the first set as he ramped up 14 winners and made only two unforced errors.
Musetti couldn't match his compatriot's first-set dominance and thanks to that, it wasn't a problem for Sinner to win the first set 6-2 in 41 minutes. Despite a clear desire to do so, Musetti couldn't come back in the second set as he struggled especially on his second serve.
He won only one of the seven points on his second serve, while Sinner still kept hitting almost all of the balls into the court. He hit five winners and made only one unforced error, and he also played well on the net, winning all seven points in the second set.
After an hour and 16 minutes, Sinner won the match 6-2, 6-2 to book a semifinal spot at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters. He will be facing fellow youngster Holger Rune for the spot in the final after the Dane defeated Daniil Medvedev in the earlier match.