INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 10, 2026

Lorenzo Musetti

Press Conference

L. MUSETTI/F. Cerundolo

7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That was obviously very emotional at the end. Could you explain your emotions and why it meant so much to get through that.

LORENZO MUSETTI: Well, probably because I wanted so badly to win this match and to continue this tournament for my home crowd, for my fans.

For me, means a lot to play here in Rome with a lot of passionate fans and crowd that they are helping me to achieve something.

I was holding all the emotion for the end. Probably was like, you know, kind of a liberation for all the emotion I kept inside throughout the match.

Q. Your backhand is such a signature shot. How did you start play with a single-hander? What do you think the advantages of it are and the challenges of playing with it?

LORENZO MUSETTI: I started since I was four years old when I started playing tennis. I never changed.

I think the advantage probably we have on clay is the variation we can use, especially with the slice and probably the touch that you can develop starting from juniors till professional.

There's a lot of challenges. I think more are the challenges comparing to the advantage that we have, especially in the modern era. I already said many times that playing one single-handed backhand is not that easy right now, especially when you play with the certain speeds and certain intensity. I am probably one of the last ones in the tour, especially at this ranking right now, so...

Not easy to adapt in this modern era with this shot.

Q. There's a trend of betters over the last few years coming to matches and cheering for the player that they've bet on or cheering against the player they've bet against. Have you experienced that at all? Have you seen people in the stands who are clearly there as betters and not as fans?

LORENZO MUSETTI: Well, it happened a lot of times, not just in Italy, but in every part of the world. Unfortunately there's still this problem that we see sometimes, especially also in some matches which is pretty clear that there's some people from the crowd that they bet and that they are cheering for the ones that maybe at that time it's not the home favorite or they disturb the game.

The only thing that we can do is try to avoid these people and try to have some... The ATP for sure has to do something and have some security that can check a little bit from the grounds because we cannot do much on the court.