Lorenzo Musetti won his first title in four years on Sunday, 25 October, beating Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-4 in the final of the Grand Prix Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in Lyon. On the same day in Brussels, Tallon Griekspoor beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6 6-3 6-4 to win the European Open.
A clean final after a near escape
A day after saving four match points against top seed Flavio Cobolli in the semi-finals, Musetti needed only 1 hour and 21 minutes against the second seed. He did not face a break point, won 14 of 20 points on his second serve and broke Fritz at love in the American's first service game, Tennis Now reported. Fritz had not lost his serve all week before the final. Ubitennis counted 27 unforced errors from Fritz against 11 from the Italian.
"Totally unexpected," Musetti said of a week he called a roller coaster. He added that he had felt "pain everywhere" before the match: "I think I played probably my best tennis." Fritz congratulated him on court: "You were just too good today."
The end of a long wait
It is the third title of Musetti's career, after Hamburg and Naples in 2022, and it ends a run of seven straight defeats in tour-level finals, according to Tennis Majors. He is also the first Italian to win this tournament, which was played in Marseille until 2025, and the fourth Italian to win an ATP title this season after Jannik Sinner, Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi.
The title comes after a difficult season. Musetti, who reached a career-high No. 5 in January, missed Roland-Garros and Wimbledon with a thigh problem and skipped the Japan Open after a small fracture in his right ring finger, Ubitennis reported. He now leads Fritz 5-3 in their head-to-head.
Fritz still 12th in the race
For Fritz, the defeat is a missed chance in the race for the ATP Finals. He stays 12th, behind Alex de Minaur and Novak Djokovic, and still needs to pass at least three players to reach ninth place, which is enough for Turin this year because Jannik Sinner is not playing. Fritz has now lost all five of his indoor finals, Tennis Majors noted. Earlier on Sunday, Daniil Medvedev moved up to fifth by winning in Almaty.
Griekspoor wins in Brussels
In Brussels, Griekspoor lost the first set to Struff and then won the next two to take the title, according to the official results. Both finalists had come through close semi-finals: the 36-year-old Struff beat Arthur Fils in a final-set tie-break, and Griekspoor came back from 3-5 down in the deciding set against Francisco Cerundolo, Tennis Majors reported.
What comes next
The tour moves on to the ATP 500 events in Vienna and Basel this week, with more Race points at stake. Results from every match are on our tennis results page.
Sources
This article was written by TiebreakNews from the reporting below, checked against official results and rankings.
- Tennis Majors — "A lot of emotion, unexpected..." - Musetti ends seven-final losing streak and four-year title drought by beating Fritz in Lyon
- Tennis Now — Magical Musetti Stops Fritz for Third Career Title in Lyon
- Ubitennis — Lorenzo Musetti Ends Four-Year Title Drought With Dominant Win Over Fritz In Lyon
- Tennis Majors — Struff, 36, fights back twice in the decider to stun Fils and reach Brussels final