While most Italian fans will have been tracking the progress of their world No.1 player Jannik Sinner during the opening 10 days of Australian Open 2025, it’s been another of the country’s troop of 10 men inside the world’s top 100 who has been happy to fly under the radar.
On Wednesday at Melbourne Park, 29-year-old Italian No.7 Lorenzo Sonego will step into Rod Laver Arena to play his first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal in a third career meeting with young American Ben Shelton.
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Sonego and Shelton are the two men who have made the most of a quarter of the draw that was blown wide open after Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Frances Tiafoe all lost earlier than expected.
Wins over opponents at either end of the age spectrum - 39-year-old Stan Wawrinka initially as well as teenagers Joao Fonseca and Learner Tien - have ensured Sonego’s seventh appearance in the AO main draw has been his most successful at this level just a few months before he enters his thirties.
The right-hander from Turin - home now to the ATP’s annual tour finals every November - has always been capable of producing tennis to test the very best, but until this latest run has perhaps struggled to produce consistency day in, day out at any of the sport’s four majors.
He first caught the eye when he scored a shock victory over then-world No.1 Novak Djokovic in Vienna in 2020, and enjoyed the spotlight during his most successful run at Masters level when he beat two top-10 players to reach the semifinals on home soil at Rome’s Foro Italico in 2021.
The world No.55 is one of the few players on tour to have picked up titles on four different types of court - grass, clay, indoor hard and outdoor hard - and he’s also proved he can perform under pressure too when he weighed in with five Davis Cup victories for Italy when his nation won the famous team competition for a second time in 2023.
After years alongside well-known Italian coach Gipo Arbino - they teamed up when Sonego was only 11 years old - he began working with another fellow countryman, Fabio Colangelo, last April, building a stronger, more resilient game at their La Stampa Sporting di Torino base back home.
Sonego believes a slightly different mental approach this year combined with the recent addition of meditation into his daily routines is making the difference Down Under.
“I think something changed in my mind,” said Sonego, who could become only the third Italian player to reach the AO singles semifinals.
“The mentality is improving. I think my tennis also improved a lot. My backhand, my return, my serve… that’s why I have more [good] results.”
He elaborated on those techniques during a recent interview with the ATP website and said he even spent time in Sri Lanka during the off season to work on his meditation.
“The attitude is different than last year,” the former world No.21 confirmed. “I am really, really calm on court.”
Scratch beneath the surface and there’s much more than just tennis to the quietly spoken Italian.
His first passion was football, playing his way into the youth academy at his beloved Torino between the ages of six and 13.
And despite everything he's achieved on court, it’s his side hustle in the world of music that has sometimes attracted as much attention as his big serve and forehand.
Punch ‘Lorenzo Sonego’ into music streaming app Spotify and you can choose to sample three ‘reggaeton’ tracks the Italian has released. His first, Un Solo Secondo, has more than 1.5 million listens.
It’s back to the day job on Wednesday though when he steps on court hoping to hit the high notes and step into new territory.