French Open: Musetti continues to prosper at Roland Garros, reaches third round

Paris, May 28 (IANS) Italian star Lorenzo Musetti continued to thrive at the French Open, racing into the men's singles third round with a straight-sets victory over Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia on Wednesday.

The eighth seed on Wednesday raced past Elahi Galan 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 to reach the third round at the clay court major, sending out a strong statement to his rivals at Roland Garros.

Musetti converted six of 12 break points he earned, according to Infosys Stats, to wrap a two-hour, six-minute triumph and build impressively on his opening 7-5, 6-2, 6-0 win over Yannick Hanfmann.

“Honestly, today was not easy to play because of the wind,” Musetti was later quoted as saying by the ATP on its website. “I think I managed to stay there and play a solid match. That is what I needed. I had to raise the level, raise the battle, and I’m really happy to be in the third round.”

With this win, Musetti took a 3-0 lead in his ATP head-to-head record against Galan to 3-0 and also improved to 23-5 his record on clay since last July. During that period, his achievements include winning a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and reaching at least the semifinals at all three clay ATP Masters 1000 events in 2025, including a championship-match run in Monte-Carlo.

“It’s been a tremendous clay season so far, but the ambitions now are higher and of course, here I never reached more than the fourth round,” said Musetti, who is competing at a career-high No. 7 in the ATP Rankings.

“Hopefully this year will be the year, and the mentality is to try and beat everyone… I have the chance to play against everyone here, and hopefully I will take these chances,” he added.

Musetti, who will play the winner of the match between Mariano Navone and Reilly Opelka next, was joined in the third round by 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hamad Medjedovic on Wednesday. Medjedovic beat qualifier Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 to advance to face Daniel Altmaier or Vit Kopriva.

--IANS

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