Musetti didn't face a break point and still lost to the world No. 277

By the Data Desk · Published 10 OCT 07:30

Lorenzo Musetti did not face a single break point against Zhou Yi in Shanghai on Friday, won ten more points than him and still lost 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. It was his first match since the US Open after a broken finger, and the man who beat him is a 21-year-old Chinese wildcard ranked 277th in the world.

• Zhou won both tie-breaks, the third 7-1, in 2 hours 28 minutes; he hit 14 aces and saved four of five break points (TennisTalker, ATP stats).
• Musetti was world No. 5 in January; on 30 September the ATP listed him 25th.
• His plan for the rest of the year, told to SpazioTennis: “Giocherò Vienna, Parigi e Stoccolma, e poi vedremo.”

It was a match he controlled on serve and lost on details. In the first-set tie-break three points in a row slipped away, a moment he later called typical of his evening, and in the third set he had three break points in a row and took none (Tennis World Italia, Puntodebreak).

His year explains the rust. He retired from his Australian Open quarter-final against Novak Djokovic two sets up with an adductor problem, tore the rectus femoris in his left thigh in Rome and missed Hamburg and Roland Garros, faded in the heat at the US Open, and broke his right ring finger in practice before Tokyo (LaPresse, ATP Tour).

Speaking to SpazioTennis after the match, he sounded like a player already thinking about next season. “Cercheremo, in questa fine di 2026, di avere come priorità la prevenzione per ottenere un fisico migliore e più forte” (for the end of 2026 we will make prevention the priority, to build a better and stronger body), he said, adding that he felt no pain during the match. Then the line that sums up his year: “Spero di aver collezionato tutti gli infortuni possibili questa stagione” (I hope I have collected every possible injury this season).

For Zhou it was the biggest win of his career and his first Masters 1000 third round, two days after he saved a match point against Mattia Bellucci. Next he plays Hubert Hurkacz, who knocked out Djokovic on the same day.