Musetti Defeats Fritz: Australian Open 2026 Quarter-Finals

To wake up at the first light of dawn and start the week off on the right foot, there’s nothing like a good shot of Lorenzo Musetti. The Italian put on the show and the job, this Monday morning, to stifle Taylor Fritz in a one-sided round of 16 (6-2, 7-5, 6-4) which gave him the right to offer himself a major meeting against Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final at the Australian Open. This will be his fourth Grand Slam quarter, but his first in Melbourne. And it will not be missed under any circumstances.

Damaged shots in spades (especially on match point), very brittle backhand chips, hard-hitting forehands and even a tweener in the last game… Musetti did everything to derail the American machine. As always, he relied on his variety of play, but above all on a high quality of service, the move on which he says he has progressed the most in recent times. And it showed: 13 aces, 68% of first serves, no break conceded (and only two small break points to erase): the world number 5 left no opening for his opponent.

Despite the absence of his coach (Simone Tartarini) and his physio, both of whom returned to Italy for personal reasons, Musetti delivered one of his most accomplished Grand Slam performances. He has now reached the quarter-finals (at least) of every major tournament, a performance he is only the third Italian player (after Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini), and the twelfth active player, to have achieved. Own.

Clean, but obviously more is needed to impress Novak Djokovic. The Italian will have to maintain this level and probably raise it a little more to beat the Serbian legend, against whom he has lost nine times in ten confrontations. “It’s always an honor to play against him and each time, I learned a lot from it,” he confided on the microphone after his success. The revisions are now complete: the exam will take place on Wednesday.