Digital Desk, Paris. Italian Lorenzo Musetti notched his first top-five victory by beating world number four Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters here on Thursday.
The 20-year-old Musetti played with confidence during a two-hour, 19-minute match in the French capital in which he pressured the Norwegian to reach the ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals.
He said, I am very happy. I think we played a great game until the end. There were many notable shots from him. He was playing very well and I had to play my best tennis to beat him. I am very happy that the hard work I have been doing is paying off.
Musetti enters the match with an 0-6 record against the top five players, then he will face either Serbian Novak Djokovic or sixth-seeded Karen Khachanov. He is making the second appearance of his in the French capital. At the same time, he had reached the second round last year.
The Italian is currently at a career-high No. 23 in the ATP rankings after heading to his second Tour-level title in Naples last month. Musetti will finish his season at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan next week, where he will be the top seed in the under-21 event.
Rudd, who has won three Tour-level titles this season, will turn his attention to Turin, where he will play his second consecutive ATP Finals.
(IANOS)
Disclaimer: This is news posted directly from the IANS news feed. With this, no editing has been done by the bhaskarhindi.com team. In such a situation, any responsibility regarding the related news will rest solely with the news agency.