Rome update: Musetti edges through as the draw starts to tighten

The men’s draw in Rome is beginning to take on that familiar clay-court shape, where control of tempo matters as much as raw hitting. Lorenzo Musetti’s 7-6(7), 6-4 win over Francisco Cerundolo on 10 May was a good example. The scoreline was tidy, but the match was anything but straightforward. Cerundolo had enough depth and weight from the back of the court to make long stretches uncomfortable, and Musetti had to manage the more delicate moments with real care rather than trying to force the issue.

That result followed Musetti’s 6-4, 6-4 win over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard earlier in the week, a very different sort of challenge. Against a bigger server, the priority was to keep enough returns in play and stop the match from turning into a sequence of quick holds and scoreboard pressure.

Cerundolo, for his part, had looked sharp in beating Alejandro Tabilo 6-0, 6-2, which made Sunday’s contest feel like one of the more useful markers in the draw. Rome is now moving into the stage where the leading names are still standing, but the margins are thinning. On clay, that usually makes for the most interesting tennis.