Musetti ends Mpetshi Perricard's run, reaches first major QF

Lorenzo Musetti is a Grand Slam quarter-finalist.

The Italian reached the last eight at a major for the first time on Monday at Wimbledon, where he ended the run of French lucky loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

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 Lexus ATP Head2Head 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 quarter-finals. 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 25th seed will next face Alexander Zverev or Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.

The 6’8” 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 PIF ATP Live Rankings.

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