Musetti battles past Mannarino, advances to Chengdu SFs

Top seed Lorenzo Musetti also reached the last four of the Chengdu Open on Sunday, when he overcame Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. The Italian, who was a semi-finalist last year in Chengdu, struck 23 winners to take his Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the Frenchman to 1-1.

The No. 19 in the PIF ATP Rankings also saved three of the four break points against him to close out the match in two hours, 16 minutes.

The 22-year-old Musetti recorded a personal-best 35th win of the season. The Italian is 15th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, but has moved within 915 points of eighth-placed Alex de Minaur following his victory against Mannarino. Musetti has now reached six semi-finals in his past eight tour-level events.

“I think today was a really great match from both players, he [Mannarino] raised the level the second set and he was starting to serve better and giving me less chances to break him and go forward,” Musetti said in his post-match interview. “So I had to be really focused each point to make it happen and at 2-2 [in the final set] when I made the break, that was the key moment that probably changed the match.”

Musetti will next face qualifier Alibek Kachmazov in the semi-finals. Kachmazov upset third seed Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-4 to record the biggest win of his career and advance to his maiden tour-level semi-final. The No. 252 in the PIF ATP Rankings lost just one point on serve in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He is the lowest-ranked semi-finalist in tournament history.

“I’m playing very good, very solid this week. So I’m hoping I can continue this way,” Kachmazov said after the match. “Today was a little bit better, it was a little bit easier to play long rallies and just a perfect day again.

“It’s an amazing week here for me already but I hope not to stop and not to think about it too much, and just continue to play”.