Alexander Zverev has also failed to make it past the quarter-finals at the Masters in Italy. The German is struggling with himself. Concerns about his form are growing ahead of the French Open.
No consistency, no title defense, and no statement ahead of the French Open: Tennis star Alexander Zverev suffered another blow at the ATP Masters in Rome, missing out on the semifinals. The 28-year-old suffered a setback against the strong Italian Lorenzo Musetti, losing 6-7 (1-7), 4-6 after a mistake-strewn quarterfinal match.
Top ten player Musetti, who has now won three of his four matches against Zverev, will face top star Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals. Zverev, on the other hand, missed out on an important test against the Spaniard ahead of the clay court Grand Slam in Paris, where he will be aiming for his first major title starting May 25. In addition, last year’s Rome winner will have to relinquish his second place in the world rankings to Alcaraz on Monday.
“It’s fantastic. This full stadium is a big advantage for me, I felt the energy from the first point,” said Musetti, who is in great form, afterwards: ‘I wanted to make it difficult for Sascha, and it worked very well.’
Former world champion Mats Hummels is in the audience
Zverev had initially caused some disillusionment among the Italian crowd. The Hamburg native started the late-night floodlit match highly focused and quickly took the local hero’s serve. However, the clever Musetti recovered in the middle of the first set, increasingly pushing the German onto the defensive and initiating a break festival at the end of the set, in which Zverev missed several set points. In the tiebreak, the world number nine then showed his best side and clearly prevailed against Zverev with some impressive stops.
In front of former soccer world champion Mats Hummels, who had once again taken his place in Zverev’s box, the frustrated Hamburg native complained about the quality of the balls in the second set. That didn’t help his game. Zverev continued to make too many avoidable mistakes and the cool-headed Musetti took advantage of his few chances. After 2 hours and 16 minutes, he converted the match point.
In addition to Hummels, whose contract with AS Roma expires in the summer, 22-year-old Serie A professional Edoardo Bove also stopped by the tournament. Bove has a Neapolitan father and a German mother and is also under contract with AS Roma. However, the German defender’s teammate is currently on loan to AC Florence.
