Lorenzo Musetti cruised past Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-3 6-0 in their first head-to-head ATP Tour match in 69 minutes at the UniCredit Firenze Open at the Pala Wanny in Florence.
Musetti earned a break in the sixth game and held his final two service games to win the first set 6-3. The Italian player earned an early break in the first game of the second set.
Musetti converted his third break point with his backhand in the third game to take a 3-0 lead. He broke for the third time and sealed the win with an ace on his first match point.
Musetti has reached his sixth quarter final and his third on indoor hard court after Rotterdam and Sofia.
Musetti won his first ATP Tour title in Hamburg beating Carlos Alcaraz last summer and has qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.
Musetti set up a quarter final against Mackenzie McDonald, who broke twice in each set in his 6-4 7-5 win over Italian Next Gen player Francesco Passaro.
Felix Auger Aliassime edged past Oscar Otte 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 6-2. Auger Aliassime broke serve in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. The Canadian player saved three break points in the eighth game to hold serve at deuce for 5-3 before serving out on his first set point.
Otte came back from a break down at 1-3 to draw level to 3-3. Both players traded breaks in the seventh and eighth games. Both players went on serve in the next games en route to the tie-break. Otte earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2. Auger Aliassime broke twice in the sixth and eighth games to close out the third set 6-2.
“It was a great start. I played a great first set and until the middle of the second set, and then sometimes that’s how it is in tennis, you get nervous a little bit. Of course, I would have loved to close the match in two sets, but the most important thing is that I was able to bounce back playing some good tennis in the third set”, said Auger Aliassime.
This year’s Brandon Nakashima beat Altug Celikbilek 6-3 6-4 joining McDonald and J.J Wolf in the quarter final.
