Musetti breaks 100-year tennis drought for Italy

Lorenzo Musetti won Italy’s first Olympic tennis medal in a century on Saturday night, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-4 1-6 6-3 for the men’s singles bronze.

The only other Italian medal in the sport was claimed by Uberto Morpurgo at the 1924 Games – and it also came in Paris, also was a bronze and also came in men’s singles.

The 22-year-old Musetti is currently ranked No.16 and is having the most successful stretch of his career. He reached his first grand slam semi-final three weeks ago at Wimbledon before losing to Novak Djokovic.

Musetti was also eliminated by Djokovic in the Olympic semi-finals on Friday, when Auger-Aliassime lost to Carlos Alcaraz.

Djokovic meets Alcaraz on Sunday in a blockbuster match-up for the gold medal.

Auger-Aliassime was trying to claim Canada’s first Olympics singles medal.

He will still leave the Paris Games with a medal, though, because he teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski to earn the bronze in mixed doubles on Friday