Lorenzo Musetti was made to work hard at the Bybit Stockholm Open on Thursday, but the Italian successfully fended off Ugo Humbert and advance to the semi-finals.
The third seed recovered after losing the second set and dropping his serve early in the third set to outlast Humbert 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 and become the first Italian semi-finalist at the Swedish ATP 250 event since Fabio Fognini in 2018.
"It was a really tough match. We both served pretty well," Musetti said. "So, it was not easy to find a way out. The key to the match was to have a [positive] reaction after losing the second set and [trailing by] a break at the beginning of the third set."
With his two-hour, 29-minute triumph, Musetti improved to 10-2 on indoor hard courts this season. The Italian last month lifted the trophy in Lyon, then upset World No. 1 Alexander Zverev in the third round at the ATP Masters 1000 Paris.
The next test for Musetti in Stockholm will be a semi-final meeting with top seed Taylor Fritz. Fritz advanced to the last four after former champion Holger Rune withdrew ahead of the pair’s quarter-final clash due to a right leg injury. The 29-year-old American is now into his seventh tour-level semi-final of the season and third in the past four weeks.
The No. 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fritz is the fifth man this season to reach at least seven semi-finals this season after Alexander Zverev (12), Daniil Medvedev (10), Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner (7 each).
Earlier at the ATP 250 event, fourth seed Alejandro Tabilo moved past Alex Michelsen 7-5, 7-6(2) in the first quarter-final match of the day. The 29-year-old crucially saved six of the seven break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to notch a one-hour, 54-minute victory against the American and level the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series 1-1.
With the triumph, Tabilo advanced to his fourth ATP Tour semi-final of the season and became only the second Chilean semi-finalist in tournament history after Marcelo Rios in 2002. Standing between Tabilo and a place in the final will be Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante. In the second quarter-final clash on Thursday, Tirante outlasted Kazakhstani qualifier Aleksandr Shevchenko 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3.
Shevchenko rallied to upset Casper Ruud in the second round on Wednesday but could not replicate the result against Tirante, who claimed the only break of the match at 2-1 in the third set and eventually advanced after two hours and 49 minutes. Tirante is into his third ATP Tour semi-final and first on a hard court.
"It was a great battle against one of my friends on the Tour," Tirante said. "We played really well for [the entire] match. Even if I [earned] only one break in the match, I think we played a good match. I am very happy because mentally and physically it was very tough. Very strong serving and incredible form."
