TURIN: Last year’s losing finalist Taylor Fritz beat Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-4 in a dominant display by the American to win his opening round-robin match of the ATP Finals in Turin on Monday.

Musetti, a late replacement after the withdrawal of seven-times winner Novak Djokovic, began brightly but started to tire despite the backing of a largely partisan crowd at the Inalpi Arena, and Fritz proved unstoppable once his service game got going.

The turning point came in the third game when Fritz saved four break points, serving two aces in the process, and then broke Musetti to lead 3-1. The Italian, who won to love in his first service game, faced break points for the rest of the first set.

“I did a great job early on in the match to serve my way out of trouble and save some break points,” Fritz said. “I’m really happy. I thought I did a lot of things really well.”

Musetti, beaten by Djokovic in an almost three-hour final in Athens on Saturday, managed to claw back four break points in the second set opener, but two double faults in his next service game gave Fritz the decisive break.

Fritz served nine aces in the second set, serving to love on three occasions, but the crowd roared back to life when Musetti took a 30-0 lead with the American serving for the match, only for Fritz to reply with two aces to wrap up an impressive win.

“The whole second set I played well and had a lot of chances to break that I didn’t get,” Fritz added. “I’m really happy I was able to serve it out there and he didn’t come back to ruin it.”

Musetti’s debut at the ATP Finals ended in defeat, but he managed to entertain the expectant Italian fans with some deft drop-shots to bring Fritz to the net and follow up with a lob to win the point.

The Italian also tried an underarm serve which didn’t come off, while Fritz dictated play from the baseline and continues his impressive form at the season-ending championships, having reached the semi-finals in 2022.

On Sunday, former champion Alexander Zverev got underway with a straight-sets win over Ben Shelton.

Third seed Zverev downed Shelton 6-3, 7-6(8/6) in the first match of the Bjorn Borg Group, which also includes Italian top seed Jannik Sinner and Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.

In a meeting between two of the biggest servers in the sport, Zverev broke the American fifth seed twice in the opener to edge ahead after less than half-an-hour on court.

The second set then rumbled inevitably towards a tie-break with few break opportunities appearing for either player.

The 2018 and 2021 winner started the breaker sluggishly as Shelton soon brought himself up three set points at 6-3.

But Zverev started the fightback with a superb backhand passing shot, before sealing match point at the first time of asking as Shelton hit long at the end of a lengthy rally.

“In the tie-break, he started off amazing,” Zverev said. “I felt like I had to control the things that I could control. “I did that well at the end of the tie-break and I’m super happy with that win.”

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2025