We previously wrote that we rarely catch Rublev standing on the tennis court with a smile on his face. However, there are also players for whom the opposite applies. A well-known example is of course Carlos Alcaraz. He not only exudes determination when it comes to winning, but above all tennis enjoyment. And among the ladies, in the past, Ana Ivanovic was a player who broke many hearts with her smile and friendly appearance.
A perhaps less well-known example is Lorenzo Sonego. Where someone else throws his racket after a stupid mistake, he can chuckle about it. And of course there is a generous smile at his box when there is something to celebrate. This week we saw that regularly with this sympathetic Italian. Even after his lost match against Fransisco Cerundolo from Argentina, which involved a place in the semi-finals, he took his loss with good sportsmanship and was still able to smile. And that after a lost tiebreak in the third set. Sonego was very close to the semi-finals, but just missed out. After losing the first set (4-6), he managed to come back convincingly in the second(6-2), but in the decisive tiebreak in the third set he ultimately had to admit his superiority to the Argentinian who won the tiebreak 7-2.
In the semi-finals, Francisco Cerundolo will play against the Russian Andry Rublev. Rublev lost the first set 5-7 to the Hungarian Fábián Marozsán, but recovered in the second and third sets (6-3, 6-2). The other semi-final is between Lorenzo Musetti and the Czech Jacub Minsik. Mensik put an end to the dream of lucky loser Chun-Hsin Tseng from Taiwan. After Tseng had previously swept Fognini off the court, he himself was beaten severely by the extremely solid playing Minsik. The only games he managed to win came in the second set (6-0, 6-4). The Italian Musetti got rid of Dusan Lajovic, who managed to win the tournament in 2019, but needed three sets to do so. He lost the first set 7-5. Musetti’s tennis looks nice, but playing often far behind the baseline, he gives his opponent quite a lot of time. Lajovic took advantage of this by putting pressure on the Italian with a good spreading. As soon as Musetti takes the balls a little earlier, he creates pressure for his opponent and is often successful. This became apparent in the following sets. With his varied game he managed to beat the Serbian and qualify for the semi-finals (5-7, 6-3, 6-0).
YOU CAN SEE THE FULL PICTURES AND SLIDE SHOW. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO AND THE PICTURES ARE SHOWN AT FULL SIZE!
