Tennis, Musetti disappointment: the Peruvian Varillas, No. 101 Atp, goes to the semifinals in Bueons Aires

When you meet a tennis player who, to be generous, one can say has never achieved great results at ATP level but who by pure chance is in one of the best weeks of his career, you always have to be very careful and maintain a very, very level of concentration. high.

Regrets

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This Lorenzo Musetti was unable to do so, in the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires against the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas, number 101 in the world and 93 as best ranking, and so the blue goes home with a decent load of regrets and with some more doubts about a start to the season that didn’t quite live up to the (many) expectations one has of him. Not bad, Lorenzo is 20 years old, and all the time in the world to make up for it, nothing dramatic has happened. Of course, it was a heavy defeat (6-4 6-4) suffered by the Peruvian, 27 years old, one who until today had as his best result two quarter-finals in ATP tournaments but who knows how to get excited against the Italians, as Lorenzo will recall Sonego, defeated in Gstaad by Varillas last year. What simply happened in tennis, and doesn’t happen too rarely, was that the strongest player (in this case Musetti) ran into a bad day, while the South American at times seemed truly in a competitive trance, especially in response, where he managed to break serve 4 times from the younger opponent, with a surprising solidity for him, so much so that he revived memories that seemed to belong to some time ago, that of the South Americans who on clay, in their parts better leave it alone.

Roller coaster

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Musetti experienced one of his usual roller coaster matches, where he alternated fabulous shots (like the one with which he recovered a break at the beginning of the second set) with phases of the match where he seemed really not very incisive. A match that slipped away with a similar trend between the two sets, with Varillas concentrated and almost relentless, practically always ahead in the score, while Musetti was always forced to chase the Peruvian, with all the stress and with a few margins of resulting error. Really a pity for Musetti, with a scoreboard that yes, Norrie would have given him later, who is still a big nut to crack, but nothing that the Tuscan could not have faced if he had been in the best physical and mental condition. Something that still does not seem, in this 2023. In the semis instead, for the first time in his ATP career, Varillas goes there, adding another prestigious scalp in the Argentine tournament after the victories against Sousa and Thiem.