{"id":94875,"date":"2026-04-04T22:19:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montecarlotennismasters.com\/?p=94875"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:19:56","slug":"high-stakes-for-musetti-in-his-clay-court-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montecarlotennismasters.com\/en\/high-stakes-for-musetti-in-his-clay-court-return\/","title":{"rendered":"High Stakes For Musetti In His Clay-Court Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lorenzo Musetti enjoyed the most productive burst of his career on the European clay last season. A first ATP Masters 1000 final in Monte-Carlo and semi-finals in Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros underpinned his ultimate rise to the Top 5 for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Now the bill has come due.<\/p>\n<p>With 2,250 points to defend throughout the clay season &#8211; more than half of all points counting towards his current PIF ATP Ranking of No. 5 &#8211; Musetti faces unprecedented pressure to back up his stellar 2025 run on the red dirt.<\/p>\n<p>But after a 10-day training block at home at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, and the confidence of reaching last year&#8217;s final, Musetti has every reason to be hopeful of another deep run in the Principality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year I had some great memories in Monaco and hopefully it will be even better,&#8221; Musetti told ATP Media Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was really important to start well as it gave me the confidence to chase my dream to break into the Top 10, which I did in Madrid. In Rome I continued to play better and then to make the semis in Roland Garros was such a good change of attitude and confidence in myself. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to bring more of this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully I can start well again this year on clay.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Musetti has a strong 12-5 record in Monte-Carlo. Last year he claimed consecutive wins over Matteo Berrettini, three-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and Top 10 Australian Alex de Minaur en route to the title match, in which he took a set from Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, he stunned Novak Djokovic in a tough three-setter to reach the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Musetti has played just one match since retiring with a leg injury against Djokovic in the Australian Open quarter-finals when he led two sets to love. He lost in the first round of Indian Wells and skipped Miami due to a right arm injury.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one, giving me more time to prepare well for the clay season,&#8221; he said of the decision to miss Miami. &#8220;Hopefully here I&#8217;ll be showing my tennis 100 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been practising for 10 days on clay. Living here in Monaco makes it easy. I&#8217;ve been able to enjoy my family and my daily routine. It won&#8217;t be easy to come back after such a long stop, but I&#8217;m really looking forward to starting again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so excited to be healthy again and to be ready to compete. I&#8217;ve been missing the competition. The clay season has always been my favourite part of the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Seeded fourth, Musetti has a bye in the first round and will begin his campaign against Monaco\u2019s Valentin Vacherot or a qualifier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Returning finalist has more than 2000 points to defend during clay swing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>High Stakes For Musetti In His Clay-Court Return - Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The bill has come due for Lorenzo Musetti, who last year enjoyed a stunning clay-court season, which began with a final showing at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/montecarlotennismasters.com\/en\/high-stakes-for-musetti-in-his-clay-court-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Stakes For Musetti In His Clay-Court Return - 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