Musetti Sets Up Hong Kong Showdown with Rublev After Storming Semifinal

Musetti advances to the Hong Kong semifinal

The Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the tournament’s top seed, earned another confident win on Friday by defeating local favorite Colman Wong 6-4, 6-4 to book a place in the Hong Kong Open semifinal (ATP 250).

He now eyes a high-stakes clash with former Hong Kong champion Andrey Rublev.

Rublev advances and the rest of the bracket

Rublev, ranked third, beat Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-4, firing 22 winners and saving the only break point he faced. Their only previous meeting came in Dubai in 2020, but Musetti has evolved considerably since then.

Rublev praised Musetti, saying, "Lorenzo has been outstanding in the last two years; when we first played, he was very young, so you can’t read too much into that match. I must be fully prepared if I want a chance in this semifinal."

Musetti, who peaked at a career-high No. 6 in 2025 and reached three finals that year but didn’t clinch a title, notably missed match points to beat Alejandro Tabillo in Chengdu and then lost a marathon final to Novak Djokovic in Athens.

Around the same quarterfinals, Alexander Bublik cruised into the semifinals by beating Chinese standout Shang Juncheng 6-1, 7-6 in 85 minutes. The Kazakh could jump into the top 10 if he goes on to clinch the title.

Bublik will meet American Marcos Giron in the next round after fellow American Michael Moe withdrew with an injury while leading 6-3, 1-0.

Punchline 1: If tennis had a punchline contest, these players would be serving up jokes with the aces.

Punchline 2: The only thing more unpredictable than a tiebreak is my gym membership after the holidays.