By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) – Italian Lorenzo Musetti turned party pooper as he ended the dream run of big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on the Frenchman’s 21st birthday at Wimbledon on Monday.
Musetti, the 25th seed, lost the opening set on Court Two but showed his extra quality to win 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-2 and reach the quarter-final of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Armed with a formidable serve, Mpetshi Perricard had taken full advantage of being a lucky loser from qualifying to advance to the second week on his Wimbledon main draw debut.
In the first round he banged down 51 aces during his defeat of 20th seed Sebastian Korda and had already gone into treble figures ahead of his clash with Musetti.
His 140mph weapon was working well in the opening set against Musetti but when he began to tire the Italian took full advantage to emerge victorious.
“It’s such a big day for me and I’m really happy and proud of this win against a tough opponent,” Musetti said.
“I struggled a little at the beginning against a big serve. I’m a little bit shaking still but at the end it’s a really phenomenal day for me.”
Mpetshi Perricard, who looks destined for bigger things after breaking into the world’s top 100 in May, fired 10 aces against Musetti but was still broken five times by the 22-year-old.
While his fairytale run is over, Mpetshi Perricard leads the aces charts with 115 for the tournament – a total unlikely to surpassed this year.
Musetti will play either fourth seed Alexander Zverev or 13th seed Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Alison Williams)
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