‘Forza!’: Lorenzo Musetti maintains an Italian presence at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England — There is a sound commonly heard this year at Wimbledon, en vogue among the hushed murmurs and encouraging shouts of “Come on!” and polite applause and sometimes even rowdy applause. It returned again at the start of the fortnight, made it all the way to Day 10 and will stick around for two more days, at least. The sound is far from unfamiliar at the All England Club, but it hasn’t been heard so often, for this long, in some time.

That would be the sound of the Italian rallying cry: “Forza!”

Court No. 1 has grown accustomed to its fair share of “Forza!” being hurled from the stands this tournament, as it was Wednesday when No. 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti surprised No. 13 seed Taylor Fritz with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win in the quarterfinals that makes him just the fourth Italian man to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, after Nicola Piertrangeli in 1960, Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and current No. 1 Jannik Sinner last year.

He follows those men and, more recently, his countrywoman Jasmine Paolini, the seventh seed here who on Tuesday defeated American Emma Navarro in straight sets to become the first Italian woman to make a Wimbledon semifinal.

Together, Musetti and Paolini made it so this Wimbledon is the second time in history an Italian man and woman have reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam — the first time being, of course, when Paolini and Sinner did so at the French Open last month.

Paolini advanced to face tour veteran Donna Vekic, who will play her first Grand Slam semifinal Thursday in her 43rd major appearance. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will face Barbora Krejcikova of Czechia in the other women’s semifinal Thursday after quarterfinal wins Wednesday.

Musetti’s prize after his triumph — which played out in front of Queen Camilla, who walked over from the Royal Box on Centre Court and joined in the wave at one point during the match — is a meeting with tennis royalty. Novak Djokovic earned a walkover in the other men’s quarterfinal Wednesday when Alex de Minaur of Australia withdrew ahead of their matchup with a hip injury.

The gulf of experience between the two men is wide: Musetti, 22, will contest the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career. Djokovic, 37, will match Roger Federer’s record number of appearances in the men’s singles semifinals at Wimbledon with 13.

“He probably knows better than me the surface and the stadium, for sure,” Musetti said, delivering the understatement with a smile.

Musetti has had plenty of time to study the grass over the past 10 days, though that may not be a positive. The Italian’s win over Fritz was his second five-set match of the tournament, and he enters Friday’s duel having spent 15 hours 53 minutes on court, while Djokovic will be comparatively fresh.

The Serb has spent a snappy 10 hours 6 minutes on court and will have had an extra day to rest the knee that was surgically repaired June 5. He also owns a 5-1 career record against Musetti and most recently came back to beat the youngster after trailing him two-sets-to-one at the French Open — three years after Djokovic came back to defeat Musetti after the Italian held a two-sets-to-none lead and retired in the fifth set at Roland Garros.

Musetti might actually be looking forward to playing Djokovic on grass for a change.

He was moving well enough Wednesday in a battle that rarely saw Fritz leave the baseline on purpose.

Fritz was competing for his first Grand Slam semifinal berth, too, and he was the hotter player after winning the title at a warmup tournament on grass in Eastbourne, England, heading into Wimbledon. He was seeking to avenge a quarterfinal loss here in 2022, when he fell in a tight five-set marathon against Rafael Nadal, and said he was nervy in the opening set Wednesday.

If he was nervous to start, it wasn’t apparent. The 26-year-old from California began strongly, dictating points with fine serving and cracking groundstrokes.

Musetti, to his credit, was trying to employ some of the variation in his game against Fritz. The Italian is one of the rare players on tour who employs a one-handed backhand, and he’s capable of mixing in slices and dropshots and shots that change the shape of a rally, not just the pace.

His touch wasn’t deft enough in the first set and he kept sending the ball thwacking into the top of the net tape, but he kept at it. Eventually, it frustrated Fritz.

“That’s probably something that I say I found it more, how can I say, worse for the other guys to be having not each shot the same,” Musetti said. “Especially like with a good baseliner like Taylor, if you play every time flat, I cannot win a point.”

Fritz said he was bothered by the wind on Court No. 1 and found it hard to play his power game against Musetti’s diverse shot selection. The American said earlier this week he favors grass because it rewards big hitting instantly, making it worth taking the risk of unloading top power into a single groundstroke.

But between the conditions affecting his serve and the subtle variation of the ball he was getting from Musetti, Fritz couldn’t find his groove. Musetti didn’t need to play the cleanest match of his career. He just needed to keep Fritz guessing.

“I felt like probably the biggest thing was when I’m playing someone that plays like him, I really need to be able to set up and be able to generate power, like really pinpoint where I want to hit the shot,” Fritz said. “I have to be very accurate because you’re not going to be able to hit the ball as hard off the dead slices.”

Fritz will try to regroup at the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month, but said he is slightly worried about an injury he suffered at the French Open that affects him more when he slides on clay than it does when he moves on grass.

He said he has athletic pubalgia, which is also known as a sports hernia, which commonly occurs in the groin or lower abdominal area.

“It was much better because on grass I’m not sliding,” Fritz said. “It’s more of an injury that really bothers me when I’m sliding, separating my legs a lot.”

As for Musetti, he looks forward to his seventh meeting with Djokovic as a more mature, more experienced and more accomplished player than he was the last time they faced off at the French Open. He called Wednesday’s win the best day of his career, a victory he attributes to all the lessons he has absorbed from losing to players such as Djokovic in the past.

“Probably that losses with all big champions made me think, made me work harder,” Musetti said. “The win of today is probably the result. I think I can have a chance with [Novak] the next round.”