The Secret Behind Musetti's Unique Playing Style

Hey, I had the incredible opportunity to interview the one and only Lorenzo Mazzetti, and in this 10-minute interview, we covered a lot. We talk about his game style and how it was shaped as a junior. We talk about his relationship with his long-standing coach, which is pretty rare on the ATP tour to be working with a coach for so long. We also talk about how he translates his game from the clay courts to the grass courts. We talk about how Italian tennis is booming at the moment and the reasons why. And he also gives tips for players, coaches, and parents to get the most out of their tennis. So stay tuned. And a big thanks to ASICS for setting this up. Let's go. Hey, folks. So I'm here with Italian tennis legend, Lorenzo Mazzetti. Pleasure to have you. Now, I've been a big fan of your tennis for many years. For one reason, the style of tennis that you play is so varied and quite unique in today's game with players smacking the ball from the baseline. Can you tell me how your game developed? Was it certain drills that you did as a junior or certain ways that you trained? Or was it something to do with the coach that you had? Well, I think my kind of style, I like to say that I have a vintage style because I think it's a mix of modern tennis and whole style tennis. And I like to think that way even when I'm playing my best tennis. And I think that's my goal when I step on court, try to use all my variation that I have in my game because I know that it's something that the opponent can deal with. And it's painful for the other to feel kind of a loss in the court and in the game. So I appreciate that you like my game. But it's something that I always had in my natural spirit of a tennis player. It's not something that I've been taught by or instructed by someone. So I watched you practice. It was maybe the last year or the year before at Roland-Garros. And I was stood behind you on the baseline. And I watched for about three minutes and you were just hitting up and down the middle. Pretty much every ball landed in the same spot, but every single one had a different trajectory. So one would go here, one would curve left, one would have height, one would be a slice. And so I can only imagine how difficult that is to play against. But it just intrigues me how do you think that developed? Was it from a very young age? Were you messing around and experimenting a lot with your tennis? I was experimenting. I was using a lot of my variation and of course I was kind of overusing it. And of course my coach wanted to simplify my game. I wanted to have more, let's say, clean strategy to have when playing. Sometimes even now I do something that is not really common. And I think that's my character and it's nothing that I can do to kind of break me to hold this kind of spirit that I have to be a little bit artistic on the court. So it's something that I always dealt with my coach since I was nine. He's been teaching me how to play, but it's something that he never kind of threw away. He just wanted me to know my weapons and try to use it in the perfect way. So I'm a coach myself and one of the biggest challenges is finding that balance between helping a player to choose the right shots, but without taking away their main skills, which is exactly how your coach did. Now you've been with your coach for many years and it's very rare. I can't think of, I could probably count on one hand how many players have had a coach for as long as you. How has that relationship stood the test of time? Well, of course we had up and down, I think everybody. But the relationship that we have and the feeling I think that we have for each other since we were really young, I think I consider him like a second dad and I think I spent more days with him than with my father. So he didn't just tell me how to play, but of course he told me also how to live and how to deal with certain situations that life brings you. And I think also the step of nine years old and 15 in the teenage era and now kind of a man. I think it's part of our journey together. So I'm always really pleased to work with him and still I think we didn't reach our goal yet. Well, I see you, you've mentioned the word being artistic. I think there aren't many players who can translate their game from the clay court to the grass courts as well as you. And that's something that you've done fairly recently is played phenomenally on the grass. Now you played quite traditional tennis in the way of slicing and keeping the ball low, but you also have that heavy topspin. Do you change your game style from surface to surface or do you just stay true to yourself as a player? Well, I think tennis is a sport of adaptation and of course you have to adapt yourself in every situation, in every surface and in every point because every point is different. And I think when someone wins it's because he adapts better at the situation that he's facing. So of course I've been playing really well on grass two years ago. It was kind of a surprise for me because I didn't know that I could express myself that way. I just thought that clay was my, let's say, only surface to potentially go really far in slam. But then it was not true. I feel that right now I can be a complete player on every surface and I can express myself in the artistic way, using all the variation that I have also on the hardcore and on the grass, on clay. So I think I could play on each surface. Amazing. I've got two more questions. So Italian tennis is booming and as a coach in the UK we have a small batch of players that are doing really well but there's not the depth in the country. Do you know or could you explain why there's such a boom in Italian tennis? Is it something to do with the coaching structure, the competition or something else? Well I think also the luck to have a lot of players. Sometimes you also have to be lucky and of course I think the last era was the, let's say, Spanish tennis era that brought a lot of Spanish players and now of course we are living that way. And I think it's a mix of, it's a combination of things. For sure the federation has invested a lot on building structures and of course giving the opportunities to young players to play in each level. So juniors, future challengers, ATP, finals, Davis Cup and all these kind of stages. So I think that the depth of players that we have, it's also about that. And of course we have the luck to have Yannick as the leader of this sport that makes everybody invest in tennis right now. And also the young kids, they are dreaming to become a professional tennis player. So I think the amount of people that tennis is reaching right now, it's really massive in Italy. So I think that's this kind of combination of things that brought Italian tennis to the top. Great. And final question. If you could give one piece of advice to a young junior player at the start of their journey, one piece of advice for their parent and one piece of advice for their coach, what would that be? So for the young player, I would say don't be too hard on yourself and try to enjoy all the process and try to have fun. And I think consider the sport your passion, not your job. That's the main thing for me. To the parents, I think the most important thing for me is that the parents, they will always support the kid or try to always don't put pressure on your son or your daughter because I think that's the only way that he or she can go and stay down and drop. And sometimes I saw in my career that a lot of parents were pushing too hard for their dream and not the kid's dream. So that's the thing, the worst mistake that the parents can do. And for the coach, I think having a great relationship, a human relationship with the player, I think it's the easiest way to connect to each other and to understand also the difficult sides of the player in the court. And of course, you have to be not just a good coach, but for me also, as you are on Instagram, a mentor, a figure that can always give something to the player. Because if not, maybe the player will have the idea to change to something else, to someone else. Lorenzo, thank you so much for your time. I'm sure that the whole world is rooting for you in your comeback and yeah, keep doing you. Thank you so much.