Musetti Beats Fritz 6-3, 6-4 in Lyon Final for First ATP Title Since 2022

Lorenzo Musetti ended a four year wait for an ATP title on Sunday, beating Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the ATP 250 event in Lyon. The title is the third of Musetti's career and his first since he won in Hamburg and Naples in 2022, and it closed a run of seven straight defeats in tournament finals.

A fast start decides it

Musetti, the No. 6 seed, broke Fritz in his first service game of the match, took a 3-0 lead, and closed out the first set on his first set point. Fritz, the second seed, had not lost his serve all week before the final, which made the early break worth even more.

The second set followed the same pattern. Musetti broke again at 2-1, protected the lead through the rest of the set, and served out the match on his first match point. He did not face a break point in the entire final, and he forced Fritz into 28 unforced errors along the way. The match lasted 1 hour and 24 minutes.

"Totally unexpected. For me, it is such a roller coaster. The previous matches have been incredible. I saved four match points to play a fantastic final," Musetti said on court after the final, in comments reported by Tennis Majors.

The hard road to the final

The final was the calmest match of Musetti's week. In the semifinal he saved four match points against fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli just to reach Sunday, and in the quarterfinals he needed three and a half hours to get past Luca Van Assche.

"The spirit of fighting, I guess, was the key for this tournament, because I always had an incredible attitude," Musetti said. "It is a mess. It is a lot of emotion. I do not know how to describe it, but I feel that it is such a dream that I do not want to wake up."

What the title means

Musetti is 24, from Carrara, Italy, and a former world No. 5 who came into this week ranked 26th, with Fritz ranked 14th. A player who had lost seven finals in a row since his two titles in 2022 finally converted one, and he did it against a higher ranked opponent who had held serve all week, without giving up a single break point across two sets at the Grand Prix Auvergne Rhone Alpes on Court Central in Lyon.