Wild goes after Musetti and also triumphs in the professional

Madrid (Spain) – In the rerun of the 2018 US Open youth final, Thiago Wild from Paraná repeated the feat and once again beat Italian Lorenzo Musetti, in the first professional duel between them. The number 1 in Brazil and 63rd in the world had another great game, he was aggressive and overcame the 28th seed with a victory in straight sets, with a double 64 scored in 1h28 of the match.

Wild may now face a much tougher challenge against the current two-time Madrid Masters 1000 champion, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. For this clash to take place, the second seed will have to confirm their favoritism in the debut later, beating Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko.

With the two victories achieved so far at Caixa Mágica, the 24-year-old from Paraná is provisionally rising two positions in the ranking and reaching 61st place, the best so far in his career. A new triumph could take Wild closer to the top 50, reaching 55th place.

The Brazilian’s well-known aggressiveness was important in leaving the court this Friday with the victory. He had more than twice as many winning balls (29 to 14), but also finished the match with more unforced errors (14 to 7). Serving was also important, with Wild winning 72% of the points played, saving all four break-points he faced.

Wild starts very strong

Balance was the hallmark of the game and the definition took place in some important points. Wild did not give up on bringing more control of the match to his side and showed his characteristic aggression in the first set. Going into the balls, he scored 16 winners and six unforced errors, compared to Musetti’s nine winners and just one unforced error.

In the first three games, the servers prevailed without difficulty, but in the fourth and fifth the partial ended up being defined. Wild managed to save two break-points to make it 2/2 and then counted on a slip from the Italian, who faced 0-40 with his serve, even saving two break chances, but succumbed on the third. After that, the Paraná native managed the advantage and took a 1-0 lead.

Aggressiveness was decisive

The story of the second set was similar, again with a very even match and little chance of breaking for both sides. In a better moment, Wild let a break-point slip away in the first game and then the dispute became fierce, with no break-points for either side.

Wild came under pressure in the eighth game, when he faced the first break-point against in the partial, saving himself in his style, served well and was aggressive on the next ball, going to the net to kill the point. Soon after, he put pressure on Musetti and obtained a very important break. The Brazilian served at 5/4 to close, saved another break point and sealed the victory on the second match point.