A Tricky Test

Musetti successfully avoided a potential trap match in the first round...

And now another tricky challenge awaits him. My main concern for Musetti in his first round was his mental state, as he seemed really devastated by losing another final, especially one in which he was probably the better player. While it was closer than in his previous matches against Mpetshi Perricard, he was still the deserved winner, even if he had to take the longer route. I don't have a lot of notes to take from the match... it doesn't tell us a lot, since it's a match that heavily favours Musetti, a tough matchup for GMP. Something to note is that Musetti had a medical timeout for his groin in the second set, something to keep in mind. As for Mannarino, he benefited from facing a Bublik who had reverted to his old "tanking ways". Bublik couldn't care less about being there, hitting a crazy amount of unforced errors, and not really existing on return.

So, we have a limited amount of useful data from their first rounds. On paper, this matchup looks quite good for Musetti. He has a lot of variety, excellent rally tolerance, and court coverage. A big factor in this match will be for Musetti to stay calm and work through Mannarino, not letting any frustrations from Chengdu linger. Being able to rally patiently on the baseline with Mannarino and then waiting for a good opportunity for an approach shot, while getting to the net, works very well. Lehecka did it really well in his win against Adrian. It will be interesting to see if Musetti attempts to implement this tactic in this match; he typically prefers to stay at the baseline. It is worth noting that Mannarino has been playing exceptionally well for a while now. He even gave Sinner a real match in Cincinnati, playing well against Shelton in the US Open (even before the injury), and won many matches against decent players with dominant scorelines...