'I would say to Roger Federer...', says young ATP star

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Roger Federer continues to lose in the ATP rankings. The new men's tennis ranking featured a move within the 'top-ten', which was the drop of one position for the "Swiss express" to the detriment of Russian Andrey Rublev, who is now number seven in the world. His great week in Monte Carlo earned Rublev to occupy the best ranking of his ascending career, with everything and that he could not conquer his first Masters 1000. With this movement, Federer appears in his worst place since March 2017 when he became the number ten in the world. Beyond that movement, the classification continues to be led by Serbian Novak Djokovic with everything and the early elimination of him in Monte Carlo. After “Nole”, the Russian Daniil Medvedev and the Spanish Rafael Nadal appear. Further behind come the Austrian Dominic Thiem and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who kept his place with everything and the title that he won in the second Masters 1000 of the campaign. The other members of the select group are the German Alexander Zverev (sixth), the Argentine Diego Schwartzman (9) and the Italian Matteo Berrettini (10). In the end there were not many movements after the first big tournament of the season on brick dust, waiting for what happens this week at both the Barcelona Open and the ATP 250 in Belgrade. Of the members of the ‘top-ten’, this week Nadal, Tsitsipas, Rublev and Schwartzman will be active on Spanish clay, while “Nole” and Berrettini will play in Serbia. It is precisely the Italian who has been reaping the worst results and is nowhere from leaving the select group of the ATP. Lorenzo Musetti recently disclosed that he used to idolize Rafael Nadal before changing his allegiance to Nadal's arch-rival Roger Federer. Speaking with Marca, Musetti claimed that he supported Nadal in his childhood years due to the Spaniard's appealing on-court personality.

Lorenzo Musetti on his passion for Roger Federer

"Yes, I was warming him up last year for a game at the Australian Open," Lorenzo Musetti said. "It is an indelible memory because we trained at the Rod Laver Arena. It was very exciting for me to meet the one who is my idol. It all came through Ljubicic, who knows my coach and speaks Italian. He asked me the day before, around 10 at night, if he could train with Roger Federer," Musetti continued. "Of course I was free because I had lost in the last of the previous round and had signed as a 'lucky loser'. It was a great day for me." The teen prodigy added that although he didn't get to familiarize himself with Roger Federer, he was content with just warming up the Swiss for 30 minutes. "Not that we talked a lot," Musetti said. "He introduced himself at the beginning and I would say to myself: 'No need, I know who you are'. He asked me how I was doing in the tournament. Not that he gave me any specific advice because we were rallying for like 30 minutes and I didn't want to bother him either."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3ne3VcJ

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