Lorenzo Musetti has been unable to keep up with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Musetti enjoyed the best season of his career in 2025, reaching the final of the Monte Carlo Masters, as well as the semifinals of Roland Garros, the Madrid Open and the Italian Open.
The Italian has continued this form into the 2026 season, with Musetti being rewarded with a career-high ranking after reaching the final of the Hong Kong Open.
As Musetti looks to challenge Alcaraz and Sinner in 2026, he has now admitted the reason why he thinks he has fallen behind the top two players on the ATP Tour.
Lorenzo Musetti admits ‘regret’ after talking about Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
Musetti is a similar age to both Alcaraz and Sinner, as well as Holger Rune, who he also mentioned when speaking on the Tennis Insider Club podcast.
When discussing his rivals, Musetti explained that he found it challenging to remain consistent like Alcaraz and Sinner have managed, with the Italian also admitting he had a regret that he still struggles with.
“Many people had expectations for me, Holger [Rune], Jannik [Sinner], and Carlos [Alcaraz] to dethrone [Daniil] Medvedev and the big three,” said Musetti. “So we had a lot of pressure since the beginning. Carlos, Jannik, and Holger, in a way, in a year, especially, he became world number four; they managed the pressure and ambitions better than me.
“I was struggling to have consistency. I always had great results and then many first rounds [exits] against players, who, with more motivation, more focus, I could beat them, not even playing that well.
“I lost so many matches throughout my career with that feeling at the end, and that’s probably the only regret that I have. I’m still working on that today.“
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Lorenzo Musetti’s Head-to-Head against Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune
Not only has Musetti struggled with consistency, but he has also struggled in two other key areas.
One of those is beating the top players like Alcaraz and Sinner, who he currently has a 10-1 negative combined head-to-head against.
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Musetti also has a losing head-to-head against Rune, who he has played on three previous occasions.
| Lorenzo Musetti | |
| Head-to-head vs Carlos Alcaraz | 7-1 Alcaraz |
| Head-to-head vs Jannik Sinner | 3-0 Sinner |
| Head-to-head vs Holger Rune | 2-1 Rune |
One other area which has been a struggle for Musetti is his lack of titles, with the world number five losing his last seven finals, having not won a singles tournament since 2022.
Despite all of this, Musetti has made great progress within the past year and with little points to defend at the Australian Open he could climb the rankings even further.
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