Lorenzo Musetti’s injury-ravaged 2026 tennis season continues as he has been forced to pull out of the Japan Open barely 24 hours before his opening match against Arthur Fery.

The Italian has played only 31 matches this campaign, missing the French Open and Wimbledon with a thigh injury before returning at the North American hard-court swing.

He played four events – the Washington DC Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open and US Open – reaching two quarter-finals before taking a break ahead of the Asian swing.

But he has been dealt another injury blow as he fractured his ring finger during practice, as he confirmed the news on social media: “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to compete in Tokyo this year due to a small fracture in my right ring finger that I sustained during a tennis practice.

“I’m obviously very disappointed, especially because I was really looking forward to playing in front of my Japanese fans and experiencing the incredible atmosphere of Tokyo once again.”

ATP News

Musetti started the 2025 season at a career-high No 5 in the ATP Rankings, but he slumped out of the top 20 after he was unable to defend his 2025 semi-final points at Roland Garros while he also dropped a lot of points at the US Open.

The 24-year-old currently sits at No 25 in the Live ATP Rankings, but he could drop out of the top 30 by the end of the week.

He remains on the entry list for next week’s Shanghai Masters, but it is doubtful he will be fit for the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Japan Open Draw

Musetti’s withdrawal means there is a late opponent change for British No 1 Fery as he will now take on lucky loser Jamie Faria in the first round on Thursday.

The winner of the Fery-Faria match will take on either third seed Taylor Fritz or qualifier Jaume Munar in the second round.

Musetti is the third big-name player to pull out of the ATP 500 event as Joao Fonseca was the first player to drop out with his place in the main draw taken by Luca Van Assche while Alex Michelsen replaced fellow American and 2023 champion Ben Shelton.

Michelsen has landed a brutal opener in the top half of the draw as he takes on top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the opening round while Van Assche faces fellow Frenchman Arthur Fils.

There has already been one shock in the tournament with seventh seed Tommy Paul suffering a 6-1, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Alejandro Tabilo.