MILAN – Tournament favourite Lorenzo Musetti was eliminated from the Next Gen ATP Finals as he lost his final group match in straight sets to Jack Draper.
The third-seeded Draper took less than an hour to prevail 4-1, 4-0, 4-3 (3) despite playing in front of a partisan home crowd supporting Musetti. Draper secured the win with his 12th ace of the match on the first of three match points to book his place in the semi-finals.
The British player will next face Brandon Nakashima of the United States, who defeated Franceso Passaro 4-3 (4), 4-2, 4-1 to top the Green Group with a 3-0 record.
Musetti was the highest-seeded player for the year-ending tournament for 21-and-under players after Paris Masters champion Holger Rune withdrew to be an alternate for the ATP Finals.
At No. 23, Musetti was also the only player in the eight-man field ranked in the top 40, AP reported.
With a win and a loss apiece in the Red Group – and Dominic Stricker having already secured the group victory – it was a winner-takes-all match for Musetti and Draper.
Stricker will face Jiri Lehecka in the other semi-final after the Czech player dispatched Matteo Arnaldi 4-3 (5), 4-1, 4-3 (4).
Stricker, who is from Switzerland, maintained his perfect record by dispatching the already-eliminated Tseng Chun-hsin 4-2, 4-1, 4-2.
This is the fifth edition of the event, which features shorter sets of first to four games and other experimental format changes.
New rules for this edition include no changeovers after the first game of each set and only one sit-down per set after three games; a 15-second serve clock after aces, double-faults and unreturned serves; and coaching during an opponent´s medical time out or toilet break.
One of two returning players in Milan, along with Lorenzo Musetti, Nakashima has matched his 2021 result at the 21-and-under event by reaching the semis. Set to age out of the competition next season, the experienced American has attacked this year’s event with great purpose.
He enters his meeting with Draper on the heels of seven consecutive sets won; after a five-set victory against Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in his opening match, he scored straight-sets wins against Lehecka and Francesco Passaro to seal his place atop the Green Group.
The fourth seed improved with each round-robin match and used a dominant serving performance to ease past Passaro, 4-3(4), 4-2, 4-1, saving the only break point against him.
Nakashima’s dominance on his own delivery is demonstrated by his 8.6 Serve Quality score, a metric which uses a variety of statistical inputs to measure a shot’s effectiveness on a 10-point scale.
“I thought my level was really high today,” Nakashima said after defeating Passaro. “It was nice to see it carrying over from yesterday. To come out and play like that was super special.”
The Briton played his best match of the week in a 4-1, 4-0, 4-3(3) win to deny the Italian an extended run in front of the Milan crowd.
“I like crowds, if they are with me or not,” Draper said after the victory. “This is what I have wanted to do since when I was younger. I wanted to entertain people. This is why I train every day.”
He’ll hope to enjoy more support as he seeks to hand Nakashima his first loss of the week.
“Brandon’s obviously playing great tennis,” the Briton said, looking ahead to the match. “He’s won that group, top of the group, so when I play him tomorrow I know it’s going to be a really tricky match. Hopefully I can play the same way I did today.”
Draper did not face a break point against Musetti and will aim to use his serve and powerful ground game to pin the American back on the slick hard courts. But Nakashima’s game is also based on aggression, with the American hitting his way to his first ATP Tour title earlier this season in his home city of San Diego.
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