Musetti became the first Italian to win an Olympic tennis medal in 100 years, winning a hard-fought three-setter over Aliassime on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Lorenzo Musetti ended a thrilling Saturday at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games by becoming the first Italian to win a medal in men’s singles for the first time in 100 years, defeating Félix Auger-Aliassime, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Seeded 11th in Paris, Musetti shook off a semifinal defeat to Novak Djokovic and held off a late surge from Auger-Aliassime, the No. 13 seed, to become the first since Uberto De Morpurgo to claim an Olympic medal in tennis for Italy after over two hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
The 22-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough summer swing, reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon and seamlessly transitioning back to clay to compete in his Olympic debut. Roaring into the medal rounds without dropping a set, Musetti scored back-to-back victories over No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz and No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev—the 2020 Olympic champion.
A 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Djokovic, who also defeated the Italian at Wimbledon, sent Musetti into the Bronze Medal match against Auger-Aliassime, who suffered a thudding 6-1, 6-1 loss to Carlos Alcaraz on Friday. A former world No. 6, Auger-Aliassime has played his best tennis on clay this season, finishing runner-up at the Mutua Madrid Open and here in Paris, defeating No. 6 seed Casper Ruud en route to the semis.
Leading Musetti 3-2 in their prior head-to-head, Auger-Aliasime hadn’t lost to Musetti since 2022, but Musetti had won two of the previous three matches on clay. Showing great comfort on the surface, Musetti landed a deft tweener lob on his way to clinching the opening set.
Musetti backed up his run to the Wimbledon semifinals with a first Olympic medal.
Auger-Aliassime rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the first and made an even bigger push in the second, rallying the match with the loss of just one game.
The third set saw Musetti steady on serve and push Auger-Aliassime on the return, engineering a pair of break points that the Canadian was forced to save. Nabbing the break at 4-3 proved crucial and Musetti gamely served out his spot on the Olympic podium.
Awaiting him will be Djokovic and Alcaraz in an order to be determined by Sunday’s gold medal match.
