MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� man bun is a thing of the past: The Italian tennis player showed up at the with his famously lengthy locks sheared, and he wound up winning his first-round match Tuesday by, um, a hair.
The 16th-seeded Musetti, a Wimbledon semifinalist last July and last August, needed 4 hours, 6 minutes to get past countryman Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Melbourne Park.
Gone were the strands that dangled nearly to his shoulders under a backward white hat at the All England Club and, as recently as late November, at the , which Italy won.
Gone was the top knot the 22-year-old Musetti featured at .
鈥淔or now, the short hair had a good start in Australia. Let鈥檚 hope it can bring me luck,鈥� Musetti said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a new look. But if I hadn鈥檛 had such long hair for such a long time, people wouldn鈥檛 even have noticed it.鈥�
Perhaps. But a glance at social media made clear that fans definitely made note of this new 'do.
He said this is the closest his hair's been cropped since he was 15. Even when he won the Australian Open junior boys' title at age 16, it was a little longer.
鈥淚鈥檓 getting old," Musetti said with a smile, "so I am trying to look younger.鈥�
His victory over the 39th-ranked Arnaldi was even tighter than the final score indicated. Musetti only managed to collect eight more points, 169 to 161.
鈥淚t was quite a long match. ... Honestly, it could have gone either way,鈥� said Musetti, who never made it past the second round in three previous appearances at the Australian Open.
鈥淚 am proud to have won, despite not playing my best tennis. When you play your best, it鈥檚 easy to take a victory home," he said. "These are the matches that make you grow and mature as a player.鈥�
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AP tennis:
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
