Roland Garros, Lorenzo Sonego and Lorenzo Musetti in the 2nd round

Federica Cocchi

May 28, 2023

Arnaldi opens, Sonego closes. In between is Lorenzo Musetti. The three Italians in the men’s draw qualified for the 2nd round of Roland Garros. The day had opened in the best possible way with Matteo’s debut success against the Colombian Galan. Then the two Lorenzos completed the work. The Tuscan overtook the Swede Mikael Ymer, disqualified in Lyon for having semi-destroyed the referee’s chair with rackets, and did so quickly with a clear 3-0 (7-5 ​​6-2 6-4). Some difficulties only in the first set for Simone Tartarini’s pupil able to pass 7-5 avoiding the tie break. Then the Italian number 2 spread against the always too nervous Swede. “In these conditions I am at ease – said the Muzzle – even if he was hot and it is more demanding on a physical level”. Lorenzo then reveals that he hadn’t been well on the eve: “I had a bad day, with stomach pain all day. It was very annoying, I wasn’t able to hydrate and eat well and this made everything much more difficult”. In the next round he will face the winner between the very dangerous Russian Shevchenko, who beat Berrettini in Arizona and put Sinner in difficulty in Rome, and Oscar Otte.

Sonny is there Lorenzo Sonego took a set more to overcome 20-year-old American Ben Shelton, world number 36 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3. The boy with a powerful physique and represented by Team 8 of Roger Federer and Toni Godsick, put a lot of effort into the Italian who had only one moment of failure in the second set. After easily closing the first set 6-4, Sonny immediately took the lead in the second but in the sixth game, thanks to three freebies, Shelton got back to 3-3 and immediately after broke the Italian who is not more was able to recover and gave up the set 6-3. In the third set Sonego regained his confidence and first serve, once again ahead 3-0 he let himself be restarted but again broke Shelton’s serve closing 6-3. In the quarter ahead 4-0 he risked suffering the comeback of the 20-year-old but he still kept a break ahead by closing 6-3 at the first match point. For him now Ugo Humbert who overtook his compatriot Adrian Mannarino. Against the French, the precedents are tied: Sonego lost at the 2021 Canadian Open and won this year in the first round of Monte Carlo by 3-6 7-5 7-5.