Musetti Withdraws Again: Ring Finger Fracture Rules Him Out of Tokyo

Lorenzo Musetti withdrew from the ATP 500 in Tokyo due to a small fracture in the ring finger of his right hand, sustained in training. The announcement came on Instagram on September 30, the same day the Kinoshita Group Japan Open draw opened:

"Unfortunately I won't be able to play in Tokyo this year because of a small fracture in the ring finger of my right hand."

Taking his place is lucky loser Jaime Faria, who will face Arthur Fery in the first round.

It's the latest halt in a season the Tuscan can't seem to get back on track. In January he retired in the Australian Open quarterfinals against Djokovic while leading two sets to love, then skipped Roland Garros with a rectus femoris injury, and in New York he lost to Dane Sweeny after feeling unwell on court, though he finished that match. Two weeks ago he had tried to close the chapter: "There was no injury, no tear", he explained on September 16, attributing the New York collapse to the heat and the intensity of the schedule. Tokyo was supposed to be the restart.

Musetti is world number 25: he dropped out of the top 20 on September 21, after two years inside it. Eight and a half months earlier he was world number 5, his career-high, reached on January 12. His plan for the end of the season ran through Japan, then Shanghai and the European indoor swing.

"I'll do everything I can in the coming days to recover and be ready to play in Shanghai,"

he wrote.

This time, the schedule depends on a bone. A fracture in the finger of the racquet hand has its own timeline, and for a player who lives off a one-handed backhand and varied touch, the margin for adaptation is thin. Three Italians remain in the Tokyo draw: Matteo Arnaldi, Matteo Berrettini and Luciano Darderi.