For Lorenzo Musetti, the best is yet to come. The 20-year-old’s maiden tour-level title at the Hamburg European Open says it; the mental and physical resilience he displayed to overcome Carlos Alcaraz in the final says it; and soon, his body will say it too.
Musetti, who prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 against Alcaraz despite missing five match points in the second set, said he would commemorate his breakthrough victory by having a tattoo done of the title of a song by Italian rock musician Luciano Ligabue.
“There is a song that is called Il Meglio deve Ancora Venire – in English, the translation is The Best is Yet to Come,” said Musetti, who also won a challenger event last month in the northern Italian city of Forli.
“I think I will tattoo myself the phrase, for sure. Me and my coach, we wanted to tattoo that phrase after the win in Forli, but I think now it’s a little bit more important, this tournament. So when I get home, I will for sure do it and have a memory on my skin.”
It is a plan that seemed unlikely to come to fruition when Musetti arrived in Hamburg minus his rackets, which went missing in transit as he made his way to Germany from Bastad, the Swedish city where he lost his sixth consecutive tour-level match. Nor were the tattoo parlours of Carrara preparing for a visit from the Tuscan city’s most famous son when he twice stood match point down against Dusan Lajovic in his opening match after contracting food poisoning the previous night.
As Musetti reflected, however, life – and tennis – can work in mysterious ways.
“When you don’t expect things, things happen,” he said. “I came here without luggage, so without rackets.
“I was in qualies, I was like three, four out of the main draw. Then I got in, so I didn’t need the rackets.
“The first practice, I practised with Lajovic, with his racket. So you could imagine how I prepared [for] this tournament. But it’s like this – it’s like life. Tennis, I think, is the definition of life, because you can have a lot of ups and downs, and you never know what’s going to happen. For sure, this week is going to be memorable for me.”
It will be all the more so after Musetti halved his ranking to reach a career high of 31 in the world, good enough to earn a seeding at the US Open next month if he can maintain his form moving into the North American hard-court swing.
First, though, there is more clay-court tennis to be played at the Croatia Open in Umag, where Musetti is seeded eighth and will no doubt harbour ambitions of facing Alcaraz in a second successive final. Drawn in the same half as his compatriot Jannik Sinner, Musetti knows he will need to maintain the mental toughness he showed in Hamburg if he is to build on his success.
“I think that the key of the title here was that I had a really strong mentality, a really strong attitude in any situation that I went through,” said Musetti. “You have to be strong and be calm, even if it’s not easy.”
You also have to remember that the best is yet to come.