Musetti’s hopes were almost dashed on Wednesday, though, as Wawrinka came out firing, breaking in the seventh game of the match for a 4-3 lead en route to taking the first set, and then—after 12 straight holds between them—coming within two points of victory at 5-4 in the second set tie-break.
But Musetti hit a purple patch from there, not only winning the last three points to sneak out the second set, but then breaking Wawrinka in the opening game of the third—which would turn out to be the second and last break of the match.
The two traded holds from there until it was all over, as Musetti emphatically served it out on his first attempt, sealing the victory with a scorching down-the-line backhand winner.
“First of all, I want to say thanks for sharing the court with a legend,” the Italian said of Wawrinka. “He’s been an inspiration since I was a kid. Stan showed really impressive tennis today and I had to raise the level to win this match. Especially in the third set he was not struggling physically at his age, so hopefully when I will be 40, I will be the same! So a really big effort from Stan, and I’m really, really happy for the win.”
And Wawrinka’s tennis really was impressive—the Swiss finished the match with more winners than unforced errors, 36 to 28, which included an incredible 22 aces.
Musetti was almost even with 33 winners to 35 unforced.
