Laslo Djere beats Lorenzo Musetti in Nur-Sultan ending his Astana Open campaign

Not an ideal result for Musetti who is still playing shaky tennis with mixed results especially on hard courts. The Italian was favoured in this match however from the start it became apparent that Djere would give him problems. The Serbian is a solid mover around the court thanks to his clay background and Musetti simply lacked the power and consistency to hit through him.

Djere on the other hand, has quite flat groundstrokes which work well in indoor conditions. The Serbian struggled to his first serve consistently (54 %) but it didn't matter much. Musetti only applied real pressure in one game where the Italian wasted break points and that was it. Djere dropped only two first serve points to win the opening set with 6-4.

The 2nd set was better by Musetti especially on his 2nd serve where he played much better not allowing Djere too many chances. However, the lone one he did offer him was taken advantage of and Musetti found himself in an early hole once again. The Serbian served much better in the 2nd set which gave him a clear advantage in rallies.

However at 5-4 when Djere served for the match Musetti played some of the best tennis he played all day long and tied it up at 5-5. That continued in the set as he eventually won it with 7-3 in the tiebreak. In the final set Djere was the one who played better across the board. He raised up his level early but failed to win the match at 5-3 serving for it the 2nd time.

In the end he closed it out with 6-4 avoiding sending the match into a 4th hour.