Wimbledon 2024: Lorenzo Musetti reaches first major quarterfinal, De Minaur also advances to last eight
London: Lorenzo Musetti of Italy overcame French lucky loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in four sets to storm into his maiden quarterfinal of a major and was joined by top Australian Alex De Minaur, who too advanced to the last-eight stage of men’s singles for the first time at Wimbledon 2024 on Monday.
The Italian reached the last eight of men’s singles at a major for the first time at Wimbledon, where he ended the superb run of Perricard with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory in a Round of 16 clash at Court No. 2.
On No. 1 Court, de Minaur advanced to the last-eight stage at Wimbledon for the first time by beating another French player, Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in an entertaining clash.
Mpetshi Perricard was celebrating his 21st birthday and entered the match high in confidence. The big-serving Frenchman defeated Sebastian Korda, Yoshihito Nishioka, and Emil Ruusuvuori en route to his first fourth-round appearance at a major, hitting 105 aces across his first three matches.
The Lyon champion was unable to fire at his best level against Musetti in the pair’s first ATP head-to-head meeting. The 25th seed broke Mpetshi Perricard’s serve five times and was the more consistent in the baseline exchanges, committing just eight unforced errors compared to 42 from his opponent.
With his two-hour, five-minute win on No. 2 Court, Musetti joined World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals. It is the first time in history that multiple Italian men have reached the last eight at SW19, with Musetti becoming just the seventh Italian man in history to advance to that stage.
The 22-year-old will next face Alexander Zverev or Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.
The 6 feet 8-inch Mpetshi Perricard, who hit several serves above 145mph during his run, was aiming to become the first lucky loser to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final. He is up 14 spots to No. 44 in the ATP Live Rankings.
De Minaur storms into quarters
The ninth seed De Minaur produced an intense performance to outlast Fils, scampering around the court to hang in, before turning the tables with his flat groundstrokes. The 25-year-old recovered from squandering a 4-2 lead in the third set to eventually finish the job in four, avenging his defeat to the 20-year-old in April in Barcelona.
De Minaur has reached consecutive major quarterfinals, having fallen to Alexander Zverev in the last eight at Roland Garros. He will aim to go one step further and reach his first Grand Slam semifinal when he takes on Novak Djokovic or Holger Rune on Wednesday.
Last month, De Minaur won his second grass-court tour-level title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. With his run to the quarters in west London, he has climbed one spot to sixth in the ATP Live Race To Turin. The Australian is aiming to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals in November.
Fils was competing in the fourth round at a major for the first time. The World No. 34 moved past Dominic Stricker and Hubert Hurkacz before he survived in five sets against Roman Safiullin.
