The 20-year-old, making his second appearance in Milan, wowed the vocal home crowd throughout the 70-minute match with his stunning shotmaking.
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Lorenzo Musetti of Italy won the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals on Tuesday, defeating Chun-Hsin Tseng 4-2, 4-2, 4-2 to move to 1-0 in the Red Group. The 20-year-old, making his second appearance in Milan, wowed the vocal home crowd throughout the 70-minute match with his stunning shotmaking. Musetti made a strong start to the 21-and-under event with a series of passing shots off both wings and good touch around the net.
“It was really nice,” Musetti said. “I remember playing here from last year. The crowd here is really amazing. They gave me extra energy. I am pretty confident and happy with the win. The shorter times [between points] means you can be in a rush, so you need to be patient and look at the times and not rush.”
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Throughout the game, Musetti was in constant communication with coach Simone Tartarin. During the match, Tartarin was seated courtside and was provided with data and analytics by the TennisViz system, which assisted him in negotiating a tactical plan with Musetti (who had an impressive 8.3 serve shot quality), the highest ranked player competing in Milan.
The World No. 23, who hit 17 winners and broke serve four times, won his first tour-level title in Hamburg in July before repeating in Naples last month.
Tseng, who is ranked No. 90 in the ATP Rankings, is the second Asian player to compete in the 21-and-under event, following 2017 champion Hyeon Chung. This season, the 21-year-old, who showed good touch at the net against Musetti, won two ATP Challenger Tour titles.
During the round-robin stage in Milan, Musetti will also face British lefty Jack Draper and Swiss Dominic Stricker. On Tuesday, Draper takes on Stricker in the final match of the day.
