Musetti vs Rune: Things we learned

Italian moves into first Roland-Garros quarterfinal with four-set win

Lorenzo Musetti Roland-Garros 2025 huitièmes de finale©Philippe Montigny / FFT
 - Victoria Chiesa

Lorenzo Musetti (8) bt Holger Rune (10) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

On a day in which all three matches which preceded it on Court Philippe-Chatrier were protracted battles, it looked like the fourth-round contest between Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune would burn the midnight oil after the two top 10 players split the first two sets in nearly two hours on court.

But the last summer's Olympic bronze medallist had other ideas. The in-form No.8 seed topped No.10 seed Rune — in the first match between top 10 players this fortnight — in four sets, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to round out the roster of quarterfinalists in the bottom half of the draw.

The win, the Italian’s first in six against a top 10 opponent at a Grand Slam tournament, puts Musetti through to his first Roland-Garros quarterfinal, as he was previously 0-3 in Paris in the round of 16.

“It’s incredible,” an elated Musetti said afterwards. “Yesterday, I was dreaming of playing like this, to raise the level… and I’ve done it, and I’m really, really proud of myself.”

Read on for some of the things we learned from his nighttime performance.

‘I’ve started to complain less’

Musetti entered the match 0-2 against Rune all-time, but his scintillating clay-court season, as well as mounting fatigue for the Dane, may have been the X-factors in his victory. The eighth seed is now 17-3 on clay this spring, having finished as the runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in Monte Carlo, and a semifinalist at both Madrid and Rome.

Winning at such a clip, consistently, isn’t a transformation that happens overnight. More than once in Musetti’s career previously — even as recently as his loss to Alcaraz in Monte Carlo — his body prevented him from a statement win, or a deep run in a tournament. But within the last year, he’s done the work to prevent that from happening — and he’s now reaping the rewards.

“I think I’ve put some more order in what I do on the court,” he said. “I’ve started to complain less, think a little bit more, and that’s what I did tonight also. Last match, I was a little too nervous… and it made me come back with another mentality, another attitude, and it’s this kind of attitude that’s made me improve.”

A key stat over the last two sets, for example? Musetti lost just two rallies that lasted longer than nine shots, taking Rune’s legs from him. The Dane came into the match having logged nearly two more hours on court in the first three rounds, including a five-set marathon against France’s Quentin Halys on the hottest day of the tournament on Friday.

Lorenzo Musetti, Roland-Garros 2025, fourth round©Philippe Montigny / FFT

Lorenzo joins illustrious list

Musetti is the 10th Italian man to reach the Roland-Garros quarterfinals in the Open era — but is one of just five Italian men all-time to reach multiple major quarterfinals after first doing so last year at Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner, Matteo Berrettini, Adriano Panatta and Corrado Barazzutti complete the set.

First-time semifinalist assured

While Rune was a two-time quarterfinalist in Paris, Musetti and his next opponent are both equally unfamiliar with the business end of Roland-Garros. The Italian will next face fellow first-time quarterfinalist No.15 seed Frances Tiafoe of the United States, who has yet to lose a set through four rounds.

What Musetti and Tiafoe do have, though, is a lot of familiarity with each other. They have played seven times at all levels of professional tennis over the course of their careers, and though Tiafoe has won four of those matches, two of Musetti’s three wins have been on clay.