There will be no repeat of last year’s semi-final run for Italian seventh seed Lorenzo Musetti after he was dumped out in Wimbledon’s first round by Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili on Tuesday.
Musetti, playing his first match since retiring in the French Open semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz with a leg injury, went down 6-2 4-6 7-5 6-1 on a muggy Court Two.
The 23-year-old recovered from a slow start to level the match but 126th-ranked Basilashvili raised his game at the end of the third set, breaking serve at 5-6 by winning a stunning rally with a volley into the open court.
Musetti’s resistance withered in a 23-minute fourth set as Basilashvili earned his first win in a Grand Slam since reaching the third round at Wimbledon in 2022.
It was the 33-year-old Basilashvili’s first victory over a top-10 player at a Grand Slam.
