From Umag to Paris, Musetti upsets Zverev to reach Olympics SFs

Lorenzo Musetti continued his resurgent run on Thursday when he upset World No. 4 and defending Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev 7-5, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics, guaranteeing him the chance to play for a medal.

Musetti was competing in the final at the ATP 250 clay-court event in Umag when the singles event began on Saturday in Paris. After falling in the title match, the 22-year-old made the journey from Croatia to France, where he has been rampant on the Parisian clay.

Musetti moved past Gael Monfils, Mariano Navone and Taylor Fritz in his first three matches before he earned his first Top 5 win of the season against Germany’s Zverev. The No. 16 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, who also reached his first major semi-final at Wimbledon three weeks ago, fired 20 winners against Zverev to become the first Italian player to reach the singles semi-finals since tennis returned to the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.

With his two-hour, four-minute win, Musetti levelled his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Zverev at 1-1. He will face Serbian Novak Djokovic or Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals. If he wins, he will enter the gold medal match, while defeat would offer him the chance to fight for bronze.

Musetti holds a 19-4 record since the start of the grass season, having reached the semis in Stuttgart and the final at The Queen's Club in London in June.

Zverev clinched the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and was aiming to become the 11th player to reach multiple singles Olympic semi-finals. The German is 47-14 on the season.