Player of the Day: Lorenzo Musetti 

It was during last year's Masters 1000 event in Rome when fans first got to know Lorenzo Musetti. The teenager ran through qualifying to reach the Internazionali BNL d'Italia main draw, where he would cause notable damage. Playing his home tournament, Musetti scored back-to-back wins over three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka and ATP veteran Kei Nishikori before falling to Dominik Koepfer in the round of 16.

That week was just the beginning.

Musetti is making his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros and is still going strong into the second week after defeating countryman Marco Cecchinato, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, his first-ever five-set victory.

Similar to his campaign last year in Rome, he is showing the grit it takes to not only succeed, but win Grand Slam titles—and he’s only 19-years-old.

This season Musetti has been slowly building on his breakout 2020 and kicked off 2021 with two ATP Challenger finals before reaching the semifinals of Acapulco, where he beat Diego Schwartzman, Frances Tiafoe, and Grigor Dimitrov, ultimately bowing out to Stefanos Tsitsipas. He also reached the last four at last week’s ATP 250 in Lyon, falling again to Tsitsipas in three sets.

It won’t get any easier for Musetti, who will face world No.1 Novak Djokovic in his 16th consecutive round of 16 showing in Paris. Up for the challenge at hand, fans should expect a fight.