Musetti out of Rome, out of top 10, and unsure of Roland-Garros after Ruud defeat
The Norwegian dispatched the home favourite 6-3, 6-1 to reach a fifth Rome quarter-final – and the Italian leaves the top 10 nursing the fourth thigh injury of a brutal 13 months. Ruud said afterwards he had spotted Musetti’s struggles on a tape, and made him run accordingly.
Lorenzo Musetti, Rome 2026 | © Inside / PsNewz
Tough scenes in Rome, Tuesday morning. Norwegian No. 13 seed Casper Ruud reached his fifth Rome quarter-final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over home No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti in the round of 16 at the Rome ATP Masters 1000, the visibly hampered Italian managing just seven points in the final five games of a one-sided afternoon on Campo Centrale.
It is Ruud’s 16th career ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final and his fifth in Rome, a record that few of his generation can match.
The match was decided early. Ruud broke for 4-2 in the first set and served it out without trouble. In the second, he broke at the start in a marathon game that stretched to six break points, held, and watched Musetti fail to convert two break-back opportunities in the next. From there the match unravelled. Ruud broke twice more, sealing the win from 0-40 on Musetti’s serve in the closing game.
Musetti will fall out of the top 10 after eleven months inside it, the timing as bleak as the manner of the defeat. The Italian has now suffered four muscle issues in his thighs in the past 13 months – at Monte-Carlo last year, in his Roland-Garros semi-final (where he retired), in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January (also a retirement), and now in Rome.
I didn’t want to retire because I’m tired of retirements
He addressed the wider picture frankly after the match. “Today I didn’t want to retire because I’m tired of retirements. I apologise for the show, but today I wasn’t able to compete,” Musetti said. “Roland-Garros? We’ll see, I need to get checks and tests to understand. Mentally it’s hard to be clear-headed and proactive. I’ve never had so many injuries in my career. I hope the test results are positive so I can go to Paris with a different attitude.”
Ruud : “Cruel and brutal”
Ruud admitted afterwards that he had been preparing for exactly the scenario that unfolded after having seen the end of Musetti’s previous match. “There is a risk of thinking about it too much, because obviously we analyse the opponent a lot, no matter who you play. And since I hadn’t played Lorenzo in a long time, I really did some research”.
“I was watching a lot of his matches, and especially here in Rome – I actually watched live with [Francisco] Cerúndolo,” the Norwegian said. “Towards the end of that match, it looked like he was struggling already. And I realised that if that’s the case, we try to make him run as much as possible. It’s cruel and it’s brutal, but that’s sport. You have to do everything you can to win matches, and for me every win is important.”
He balanced the candour with sympathy. “I wish him to be healthy and to recover as fast as possible. Towards the end you could see he was struggling, and it was a shame for the match. But that’s the brutality of this sport, and of other sports too. It’s not easy to deal with pains and injuries, and I give him credit for trying his best and doing what he could.”
Ruud will face Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals, the Russian No. 13 seed having ended Dino Prizmic’s remarkable Rome run with a 6-1, 7-6 win on the Super Tennis Arena.
ROME MASTERS 2026 — ROUND OF 16
Sinner (1) vs Pellegrino (Q) : Tuesday
Rublev (12) vs Basilashvili (Q) : Tuesday
Medjedovic vs Landaluce (LL) : Tuesday
Tirante vs Medvedev (7) :Tuesday
Ruud (23) – Musetti (8) : 6-3, 6-1
Khachanov (13) vs Prizmic (Q) : 6-1, 7-6
Jodar (32) vs Tien (19) : 6-1, 6-4
Darderi (18) vs Zverev (2) : Tuesday
