Lorenzo Musetti has suffered his share of heartbreak at the hands of Novak Djokovic.
It was Djokovic who denied Musetti a place in the French Open quarter-finals on his main draw debut at a grand slam two years ago, and Djokovic who once again thwarted him when he reached his first Masters 1000 quarter-final in Paris-Bercy last November. On the first occasion, Musetti led by two sets to love; on the second, he won just three games. Factor in a straight-sets defeat in Dubai in their only other career meeting, and you can see why Musetti, ranked and aged 21, might have felt some payback was in order as the pair met once again with a place in the last eight of the Monte Carlo Masters at stake.
It all ended in tears for Musetti, but for once the Italian’s dominant emotion was joy as he battled back from a set and a break down to claim the biggest victory of his career, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, in six minutes shy of three hours.
“I am struggling not to cry,” said Musetti at courtside afterwards. “It’s really an emotional win because it was a really long match, three hours of match, suspended with the rain.
“It was for sure not easy conditions since the beginning, because it was a little bit windy, cold, not like we played in the last [few] days.
“I am really proud of myself… I am struggling not to cry, because I think it’s a dream for me.”
A powerful, tenacious performance was all the more impressive for the composure Musetti showed after the contest was rained off for an hour early in the deciding set. The delay, which came as Musetti was gathering momentum, must have seemed like manna from heaven to Djokovic, a precious chance to regroup after he had stood within two games of a routine victory at 4-2 in the second set.
But Musetti stuck doggedly to the task on the resumption of play. A pair of huge forehands ushered him towards a break in the seventh game, and he held his nerve brilliantly at the death, crashing down his sixth ace to bring up two match points and eventually sealing victory on his fourth, after Djokovic had come within a point of levelling with a stunning backhand pass.
“He’s always such a unique player, you can never count him out,” said Musetti, who will face Jannik Sinner in the last eight after his fellow Italian saved a match point to defeat Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.
“I didn’t focus too much on him, I just had to think of what I had to do to beat him. Even if he plays bad, he’s still the No 1 in the world, so you can never count him out. You have to kill him like 10 times.”
Even so, this was no ordinary performance from Djokovic. Often vulnerable in the early weeks of the clay-court season, the Serb had spoken beforehand of the need to get “more time, more matches” to adapt to the surface, but he would surely not have anticipated a tally of 46 unforced errors. The majority came from his forehand, and only he will know how far those mistakes – not to mention the eight breaks he suffered in a serving performance woeful enough to evoke memories of last year’s defeat to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina – owed to whatever it was that persuaded him to wear a protective sleeve on his right arm, an item he last sported shortly before undergoing elbow surgery in February 2018.
Also notable was a small patch of tape on Djokovic’s left hamstring, which he tore during January’s Australian Open, as he re-emerged from the rain break. Nothing, however, will have hurt the 35-year-old more than the incorrect line call that went against him with Musetti serving at 4-3 in the second set. Eager to make further inroads after earning a lifeline with a break in the previous game, the Italian pounced on a short return from Djokovic only to slam a forehand a couple of inches long. No call was forthcoming and, amid bemused looks from both players, Aurélie Tourte, the French chair umpire, was quickly on the scene to check the mark. As Tourte gestured towards the line, Djokovic was incredulous.
“For me, it touched the line,” said Tourte, as Djokovic circled a mark a couple of inches behind the baseline.
“But where is the mark?” asked Djokovic. “You are not showing me the mark.”
“I don’t have any other mark, I don’t have the mark and he doesn’t have it either,” replied Tourte, gesturing towards the linesman.
Hawk-Eye, the electronic line calling system widely used at big tournaments on other surfaces, is rarely utilised on clay, although the technology is almost invariably in place and available to television companies. Replays showed that Djokovic had pointed to the correct mark.
Musetti held to love and subsequently capitalised on two double-faults from Djokovic to break. Apparently on the verge of victory only minutes earlier, the Serb suddenly found himself up against a reinvigorated opponent and a crowd full of baying Italians. No wonder he crushed a racket underfoot at the next change of ends, earning a code violation for his troubles.
Was it a turning point? Whatever was troubling Djokovic, he remained tight-lipped afterwards.
“You always hope for a good day in the office, but I’m not playing so great and he’s playing very well, so I knew it was going to be a tough match,” said Djokovic, who won just 39% of his second serve points.
“It’s not a great day for me, so I’m not really in the mood to speak.”
Daniil Medvedev, the third seed, later came perilously close to following Djokovic out of tournament. Alexander Zverev, the Olympic champion and former world No 2, served for the match at 5-4 in the second and third sets, and held two match points in the decisive tiebreaker only for Medvedev to come through 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7).
“That was a crazy match,” said Medvedev. “He served two times for the match, he probably should have done better, but that is also clay courts.
“I tried to watch a lot of tennis before playing this tournament, and one thing that I saw is you can come back at any moment. The serve doesn’t count as much, so as soon as someone gets a little bit tight, the match can turn around in one second.”
Djokovic would no doubt agree.