Lorenzo Musetti ends Alexander Zverev’s Olympic title defense

Alexander Zverev’s chances of becoming the second man in history to win back-to-back Olympic singles golds are over after he was beaten 7-5, 7-5 by 11th seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. It means Germany ends the tennis tournament at Paris 2024 without a medal.

The world No. 4 was under pressure from the very start of the match on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, losing his opening service game as the Italian came out on the attack. Zverev battled back to 5-5, but failed to hold his serve and force a first-set tiebreak.

Conditions on court were again sweltering, with Zverev spending one changeover break holding a bag of ice on his head. The second set remained on serve until the eleventh game, when once again the Italian’s aggressive play proved too much for the defending champion to handle. Musetti secured a 6-5 lead before serving out the match to love.

The performance was not the standard that tennis fans have come to expect Zverev, who struck 29 unforced errors and four double faults. His defeat means Great Britain’s Andy Murray, who is retiring from the sport at the end of the Paris Games, remains the only player to successfully defend an Olympic singles title with his two golds at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Musetti will now face either Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the gold-medal match.