Musetti gets Chengdu ‘revenge’ bid underway with Prizmic win

  • Posted: Sep 20, 2025

Lorenzo Musetti was forced to navigate a testing return to the Chengdu Open on Saturday, but the top seed and defending finalist showed his grit and flair to keep his title hopes alive.

In his first outing since his run to the US Open quarter-finals two-and-a-half weeks ago, Musetti overcame spirited #NextGenATP talent Dino Prizmic 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in two hours, 16 minutes at the Chinese ATP 250 event. Prizmic matched Musetti’s 27 winners with his fearless shotmaking, but the Italian found an extra gear in the deciding set to accelerate to victory.

“Today I started with a little bit of tension, but it’s pretty normal, it’s my first match in more than two weeks,” Musetti said. “The first match in China is always tough… Different conditions from last year, and of course the opponent: He was playing really solid, so I had to find my way and in the third set I started to play better and take the lead of the game.”

Fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Prizmic was competing in Chengdu through the Next Gen Accelerator, which offers players aged 20 and under increased opportunity to compete on the ATP Tour.

Musetti, who is aiming to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals this year, is eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, now just 25 points behind Alex de Minaur in seventh. Into his third quarter-final in Chengdu, the 23-year-old Italian will next face qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Having improved to a 6-2 tournament record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Musetti tied Grigor Dimitrov for the most quarter-finals (3) and Shang Juncheng for the most wins (6) in event history. He made the final last year as the top seed, but fell to Shang in straight sets.

“Even before starting the tournament, I said that my goal is to take revenge from last year,” Musetti said. “It was a great run for me, but hopefully this year will go even better, and this is a nice start.”

Watch Extended Highlights from Saturday in Chengdu:

Musetti’s quarter-final opponent Basilashvili continued his run from qualifying with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over Mackenzie McDonald — his first Lexus ATP Head2Head win over the American in his fourth attempt (1-3).

Fellow qualifier Taro Daniel also advanced on Saturday by upsetting third seed Tallon Griekspoor 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reaching his first ATP Tour quarter-final since Auckland in January last year. The Japanese will face Chengdu debutant Alexander Shevchenko, who rallied past sixth seed Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final match of the day.

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

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