3 hours and 7 minutes of first round, but well over 5 considering the two breaks due to the rain. This is how long it takes Lorenzo Musetti to make his way to the second round at Wimbledonoverturning a very difficult start and beating the Frenchman 4-6 7-6(3) 6-2 6-2 Constant Lestienne. Now it will be a short wait for him to find out if it will be a derby with Luciano Darderi or a confrontation with the local wild card Jan Choinski.
The first set doesn’t start well for Musetti, who even in his debut on the return manages to bother Lestienne. The Tuscan’s problem, however, is that he ends up completely in a blank passage in the third game and suffers a break to love, also risking having to deal with a second service lost at 3-1. On that 15-40, however, the Italian manages to get the situation back on track by playing in a fairly solid manner. The Frenchman’s service games fly by easily, those of the Italian number 2 less so: again at 4-2 he has to save himself, then comes the 6-4 anyway.
That the day of the 2002 class is not exactly the best is increasingly evident at the beginning of the second set. Backhand that does not do what it should, the whole game that is consequently without certainties, and in the meantime Lestienne often has the opportunity to wait with license to take some winners from time to time. Even so, the break at 30 arrives, again on 1-1, which the transalpine takes with confidence. The fight enters in the fifth game, for Musetti there are two other dangerous situations of disadvantage of 4-1 to save. He gets out of trouble, but the rain arrives and, for an hour, blocks everyone.
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The one who comes back, however, is a more charged and convinced Lorenzo, who earns the counterbreak point almost immediately and returns to 3-3 with a splendid winning forehand return to the intersection of the lines. The problem, however, is that Lestienne immediately takes the advantage back, also at 30, showing that he is very present. A furious eighth game follows, for a fight, in which the Frenchman gives in with a deadly double fault. From the Tuscan side, however, other errors arrive: fourth break in a row, but it is not over yet. Despite two set points for the thirty-two-year-old from Amiens, the native of Carrara holds up, takes advantage of his opponent’s problems in closing and comes back to 5-5 and then manages to hold his serve, although with difficulty. The tie-break becomes almost a monologue by the Carrara player, or rather it is because Lestienne, seeing himself fundamentally lost, makes many mistakes and leaves a lot of confidence in the Italian, who closes 7-3.
With the third set the match changes definitively. And it does so thanks to Musetti, because he scores the most beautiful point of the match, and perhaps one of the best of the tournament when it comes to the end, at the end of a series of endless races that are worth the immediate break. From that moment his level goes up, Lestienne’s goes down, given that the errors start to rain down, and it doesn’t take long for the service games of advantage to become two (or rather, for a few minutes only one because between the third and fifth game there is a small gap of the Tuscan). There is brevity, and also quality, in the arrival up to 6-2 of the Tuscan, which puts itself in an excellent position to close.
And this is also demonstrated by the fourth set, which essentially sees Lestienne’s prolonged breakdown continue. The Frenchman is basically no longer able to keep up with Musetti’s rhythm and game. The Carrara player travels with three more gears than his opponent, who first concedes a break, then another, making more and more mistakes. In essence, the game of the first two sets is no longer enough for him, because now on the other side there is a man much more confident in his own means. At 5-1, however, a second downpour of rain prevents the immediate closure. Upon returning to the court, it takes little for the Italian to take the second round in 6-2 format. All this after a total of almost five and a half hours.
To close well, Musetti also needs 12 aces and a free winners-errors count that rises especially when the whole game starts to turn: 59-38 against 38-53. For the Tuscan also a very valid 51% of points won with the second serve, against the 32% of Lestienne which, in the end, is fatal for him.
