They’ve done it! The top two seeds, Lorenzo Musetti and Alexander Bublik, of the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open have delivered and will face each other in the final. But it wasn’t an easy day at the office for them.
- Musetti keeps multitasking in Hong Kong!
- Bublik, it was all in the lenses
SO… WHAT HAPPENED?
Musetti everywhere!
Lorenzo Musetti will be the man of the day on Sunday, whether he leaves with trophies or not. The Italian has indeed made sure to have things to celebrate as he clinched a spot in the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open’s final on Saturday, beating Andrey Rublev in a thriller (6-7(3), 7-5, 6-4).
That victory has not only opened the door of the singles final for Musetti but also the path to the Top 5. As of Monday, he will join Jannik Sinner in this very-VIP club. It will be Musetti’s ninth ATP final, his fifth on hard court, but he’s always made history as he’s officially now the third Italian in the ranking’s history to reach the Top 5 after Adriano Panatta (1976) and Jannik Sinner (2024).
“I just got the win, so I didn’t even think about the Top 5, even if, of course, I knew about that even before stepping on the court. But, yes, it’s such a pleasure, and I think with the win today, I kind of deserve it! So I’m really, really happy and I will hopefully try to go for more.”
Against Andrey Rublev, Musetti was under pressure for two sets and close to breaking down, but he kept fighting and then raised the bar again to find a way through an opponent that was producing some incredible tennis out there, too. “I had to fight really hard to make that happen. Andrey played a really great match, with great intensity and at a great level. In the end, I think I managed to play some points better than him, and that was the key to the match .”
For his third appearance in Hong Kong, Musetti has been a very busy man all week and will play both the singles and doubles finals. That’s a way to test how good (or not) that winter preparation was! “I felt great on court today, honestly. The speed of the ball was really high, and also the intensity of keeping that level for three hours. I think I managed to stay really consistent and especially on the serve, I never had so many drops. So I guess all the hard work that I put on during the preseason is paying off, and I’m really happy. Well, of course, now the focus is on recovering to be in the best shape as I can tomorrow. It will be challenging to play two finals, but I feel lucky and privileged to be there.”
The Italian, who beat the 2024 champion on Saturday, could now clinch his first title since 2022, which he’d find a logical reward. “I worked really hard for this title, and hopefully it’s coming tomorrow. But I’m not really focusing on the title, just on another chance to play a match with great intensity and great attitude. In the end, I think that’s what brings the title.” Musetti is down 1-2 in his confrontations with Bublik, but he was also down 1-0 against Rublev before today, so maybe the Italian will be setting all the records straight this week.
Bublik, “never trained to be a Grand Slam champion”, prefers “to enjoy” instead
Alexander Bublik needed two things to turn this match around against Marcos Giron: a rant that got the best of his racquet and then another pair of lenses. These two things acquired by the time the second set came, the top seed dominated that semifinal (3-6, 6-4, 6-2), proving way too powerful for Giron.
“I had trouble seeing the ball. I didn’t know why, because I thought I did all my routines correctly, but I had my lens moving inside my eyes. I didn’t understand that soon enough, but then I went to change the lens quickly, and at least I started seeing the ball clearly. After that, I just needed to let the emotions out and forget about it. If I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose, it’s okay, but I just wanted to at least show my game, and that definitely helped.”
Bublik, who won four titles last year and is on a 32-9 run since Roland Garros, will play his 16th ATP final on Sunday and could enter the Top 10 for the first time in his career if he were to clinch the title. He’d become the first man representing Kazakhstan to do so.
Yet, Bublik has never been the type to have lofty dreams about tennis. And he doesn’t intend to change now, at 28. “I was never trained to be a Grand Slam champion. I maybe had a dream about it when I was 12, but when I became a bit older, I realised it’s more important to enjoy what you do. (…) I also just want to relax more, so in order to relax more, I need to play better. The goal is always to play less, maybe 20 events, but I need to keep my ranking up. I told myself, okay, if there is a chance for me to stay home more, I just have to play better, and for now, it’s working, and I’m going to be home more. But if it’s going to stop working, I’ve got to play 35 weeks again!”
Bublik will face Musetti for the title as the Italian is now a Top 5 player, but if you ask him, he was fine being a Top 30 player and won’t lose sleep if he gets back there instead of climbing more. “I was always heading towards 25, between 25 and 35. I was comfortable there. I was staying there for four years straight, and then some changes in the game happened, and I was able to get to the top 20, and now close to the top 10. But for me now to keep the level, I need to keep the focus and try to be 100% at the events I play.” Tennis maturity found its way into Bublik’s game, so one can see again that it’s never too late. On Sunday, one thing is sure: Hong Kong is going to host and see a final between two of the very best players in the world. No complaints anywhere.
Check out SINGLES DRAW results, DOUBLES DRAW results and ORDER OF PLAY on hkmenstennisopen.com
WAIT… WHAT DID THEY SAY?
Andrey Rublev: “It’s part of the sport… I had some breakpoints, but he played all of them well. It’s all about details, and on these details, he was better than I. That’s it. He was more stable, and in the end, he won the match. I had some chances, true, but he played well. In some moments when I could play better, I didn’t. Of course, I would like to do things differently now after the match, but what is done is done. It doesn’t matter to talk about the past. What matters is to learn, to see that some mistakes I make are the same. There are some improvements, and I’m doing some things better than I used to do, but still, there are some things that I keep repeating, and I just need to learn from them so I can change them. What? Well, some of my personal things that I keep for me!” (He laughs)
On Musetti: “He’s a great, talented player. He has good physical conditions. He’s fast.
He can hit the ball hard. He’s great and has been playing his best tennis for over a year now. He’s one of the best players now.”
COME BACKSTAGE!
(Mark Woodforde and Pat Cash at a clinic on Saturday in Hong Kong.)
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