{"id":402138,"date":"2026-01-09T14:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402138\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:23:07","slug":"lorenzo-musetti-chasing-first-title-since-2022-meets-andrey-rublev-in-hong-kong-sf-showdown-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402138\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzo Musetti, chasing first title since 2022, meets Andrey Rublev in Hong Kong SF showdown | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Hong Kong<br \/>\n    Musetti, chasing first title since 2022, meets Rublev in Hong Kong SF showdown<\/p>\n<p>Bublik moves closer to Top 10 debut<\/p>\n<p>January 09, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Mike Frey \/ HKCTA<\/p>\n<p>        Lorenzo Musetti is chasing his first ATP Tour title since 2022.<br \/>\n        By Jerome Coombe<\/p>\n<p>Is Lorenzo Musetti poised to finally end his near four-year wait for an ATP Tour title at this week\u2019s Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open?<\/p>\n<p>The top-seeded Italian took another assured step forward on Friday, brushing aside home favourite Coleman Wong 6-4, 6-4 to book his place in the semi-finals. Musetti, who has not lifted an ATP Tour title since he won two in 2022, can now look forward to a meeting with former Hong Kong champion Andrey Rublev.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I had to be really, really solid from the beginning,\u201d said Musetti, who improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Wong. \u201cIt was a really close match, but I stayed really focused until the end. So I\u2019m really happy and proud to start 2026 well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rublev hit 22 winners and saved the only break point he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, in his 6-3, 6-4 clinic against Nuno Borges. The third-seeded Rublev won his only previous meeting with Musetti in Dubai in 2020, but the Italian is a considerably improved player since then.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy to be back in the semi-finals here in Hong Kong,\u201d said 2024 champion Rublev. \u201cLorenzo is playing unbelievable the last couple of years, he\u2019s getting better and better. When I played him the first time, he was super young, so it doesn\u2019t really count. I need to be really ready if I want to have a chance for a good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as reaching a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings in 2025, Musetti also reached three finals. He let slip two championship points against Alejandro Tabilo in Chengdu and later fell to Novak Djokovic in a gruelling three-hour Athens final.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Bublik moved one step closer to a debut inside the world\u2019s Top 10 when he defeated <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/juncheng-shang\/s0re\/overview\" target=\"_blank\">Shang Juncheng<\/a> 6-1, 7-6(2) in 85 minutes. Into his 23rd tour-level semi-final, the Kazakhstani could jump one spot to No. 10 if he wins the title at the ATP 250 event.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Access denied \u274c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hkto_mens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Hkto_mens<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BOCKTO2026?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#BOCKTO2026<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/I1dhYkPzWA\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/I1dhYkPzWA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ATP Tour (@atptour) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atptour\/status\/2009574269978857833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very tough to play Jerry when he\u2019s in the mood. In the second set, he was playing unbelievable tennis,\u201d Bublik said of Shang. \u201cI hope I can maintain [the momentum]. I hope to continue well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bublik will next face American Marcos Giron. He led Michael Mmoh 6-3, 1-0 when the latter was forced to retire due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Musetti, chasing first title since 2022, meets Rublev in Hong Kong SF showdown Bublik moves closer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-402138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}