Holger Rune defends Lorenzo Musetti over 'retired too easily' claims
NewsWednesday, 28 January 2026 at 12:37
Lorenzo Musetti just experienced one of the most painful losses of his tennis career, and as if that wasn't enough, some of the fans added insult to injury.
Musetti has reached two major semi-finals in his career. Once at Roland Garros and once at Wimbledon. He was on his way to his third such semi-final at the Australian Open before an injury stopped him.
The Italian player was taking on Novak Djokovic, with both players lacking their coaches in their box. Musetti's coach, Simone Tartarini, had to fly home because of personal reasons, while Djokovic's coach, Boris Bosnjakovic, has been sick.
Even without his coach, Musetti was in a perfect position to cause an upset against the 10-time Australian Open champion. He won the first two sets of the match 6-4, 6-3, but he requested a medical timeout at the start of the third set and retired 1-3 down.
The reason for his retirement was a right-leg injury. Speaking during his post-match press conference, Musetti admitted that he started feeling pain at the start of the second set.
"I felt it at the beginning of the second set. I felt there was something strange in my right leg. I continued to play because I was playing really, really well. But I was feeling that the pain was increasing and the problem wasn’t going away. When I started to play again [after the medical time out] I felt even more… the level of the pain was getting higher and higher. Not much to say about it."
It's not very usual to see a tennis player retire from a leading position. The last similar instance happened at last year's Wimbledon Championships when Grigor Dimitrov was in a 2-0 lead against Jannik Sinner.
That was maybe one of the reasons why one of the fans felt like Musetti retired too early, especially since he had such a huge lead over Djokovic. The fan in question posted his thoughts on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), saying the Italian player is not a fighter because of his retirement.
"Musetti retires way too easily. He doesn’t fight. I may sound harsh but every player has some minor issues here and there, a Grand Slam quarter-final where you are 2-0 up is a situation where you should try to fight and get treatment. He gave up easily, many times he does this. He’s not a fighter."
Holger Rune, who couldn't compete at the 2026 Australian Open because of his injury sustained last year, saw the post. The Danish player is a prime example of why playing through pain or an injury is not a good idea, so from his personal experience, he explained to the fan why what Musetti did was the right decision.
"Look what happened to me when I pushed through a grade 1 tear in the leg… cost me longer time away from tennis than ever before. Yes we want to fight at any cost and with pain, but I perfectly understand Musetti chose to listen to his body."
It's great to see how Rune quickly jumped to his colleague's defense, even though he didn't have to. It once again proves that the locker room on the ATP Tour is currently in a much better place than it used to be.
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