Van Assche beats Musetti and reaches the Paris quarterfinals

Luca Van Assche beat Lorenzo Musetti 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in more than two and a half hours in the round of 16 of the Rolex Paris Masters on Thursday, November 5. The Frenchman, ranked No. 47 in the world, is into the quarterfinals.

In October, in the Lyon quarterfinals, it had gone the other way: Musetti won 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in three hours and 32 minutes, with the last point played after one in the morning, and then went on to take the title. In Paris the Italian, ranked No. 24, came in off his win over Alexander Zverev, in his first match as No. 1. Van Assche had knocked out Mariano Navone and the No. 15 seed Learner Tien.

In the quarterfinals he will face Rinky Hijikata, the 25-year-old Australian ranked No. 83 who came through qualifying. On Wednesday Hijikata came from behind to beat Novak Djokovic, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, and on Thursday he did the same against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.