Alexander Zverev aims dig at Lorenzo Musetti – ‘He depends a lot on defence’
There was no praise for Lorenzo Musetti from Alexander Zverev after their Italian Open quarter-final with the latter quite uncomplimentary about his rival’s game while the tournament balls also came under fire from the German.
Musetti won his third match in a row against the second seed as he came back from an early break in the first set to win 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 and end Zverev’s title defence in Rome.
The Italian, who has reached the semi-final of all three ATP Masters 1000 clay-court events this year, now leads Zverev 3-1 in their head-to-head rivalry.
When asked if Musetti changed his usual style of play during the clash at Foro Italico, Zverev was far from complimentary about his opponent.
“I think he plays similar when he plays on clay all the time. He depends a lot on defence. He depends a lot on the mistakes from other opponents,” the second seed said.
“Today was difficult for me to hit winners. It was very slow, very, very heavy. The balls were getting very big. Even though I had my chances, I was up three set points, four set points in the first set on my serve. Usually I should win that set and then we’ll see.
“Yeah, like I said, it was difficult.”
Next in for some criticism were the balls that are being used at the tournament.
“Balls were a joke today. Generally speaking this is a subject we’ve had over the last three, four years now. Players are talking about it all the time,” Zverev said.
“They say we play with the same ball in Monaco, Madrid, Munich. Then we come here and the ball is totally different. The ball is very, very big. It’s very difficult to hit winners here. It’s just how it is these days.
“Of course, for me, for my game style, today was not easy because at the end of the day I’m still somebody that tries to play aggressive. I’m still somebody that tries to serve very fast. That’s how it is. It’s difficult to get free points today.”
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Zverev has endured an impressive ATP Masters 1000 season so far as he lost in the second round in Indian Wells, the round of 16 in Miami, the second round in Monte Carlo, the fourth round in Madrid and now the quarter-final in Rome.
As a result, he will drop to No 3 in the ATP Rankings after the Italian Open and that means he will be seeded third at the French Open.
