Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti will try to shake off an opening loss when they were shut out at the Nitto ATP Finals on Tuesday night.
Musetti leads the head-to-head series 3-1, although he has never won a minaur on a hard court. The Italian won 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the 2024 Queen’s Club tournament, the third set at the Monte-Carlo Masters this spring, and 6-4, 6-2 a few weeks later in Madrid. De Minaur’s lone victory came in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 decision at the 2022 Australian Open.
Together with Mumetti he played throughout the 2025 campaign, missing out on direct qualification for the year-end Championship – albeit by one game. After being passed by Felix auger-AliasShime for the No 8 Spot in Paris, Musetti took his talents to the Athene Atp 250 last week. In need of a title, the world number 9 lost to Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in Saturday’s final. Soon after, however, Djokovic announced his withdrawal from Turin and Mumetti stepped in as an exception.
Just one day after that two-hour and 59-minute fight against DJokovic, the worried Masetti began to overwhelm Taylor Fritz 6-3. 6-4 In his opening team Jimmy Connors atrach on Monday afternoon.
It has not been very easy against the de minaur. The 26-year-old is coming off an impressive season extension in which he won the ATP 500 title in Washington, DC and reached the quarterfinals at each of the Grand-Carty venues on both sides. The 7-year-old World No. 7 has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in all four of his tournaments during the fall. De Minaur lost to Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Sunday, but it was a high-quality match all around.
The home crowd may encourage Musetti to fight his way to the set, but for the most part it looks like de Minaur should have the upper hand. Australia is not an opponent you want to see on the other side of the net when you are down.
Choose: de Minaur in 3
