Lorenzo Musetti has had quite the year. A quarterfinal at Wimbledon, a run to the final at the US Open – and now he and his team have the chance to win the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas title for Italy for just the second time in history.

“A great year, a very important year for me,” Musetti reflected during an interview in Budapest this week. “I grew up so much this year. I’m very happy.”

Prior to the US Open, Musetti’s story in 2018 had been one of steady progress, beginning the year ranked No. 45 and climbing into the Top 20 by early September. But it was his excellent form in New York, where he reached the final unseeded before falling to Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild, that has done the most to catch the attention of the tennis world.

“It was a really unexpected tournament,” Musetti said of his time in New York. “I always go and watch the pros [at the Grand Slams], but at the US Open I never watched the pros because I was always playing.

“It was a pity in the final,” he added – he was ahead in the deciding set before succumbing to a 61 26 62 defeat. “But it was very fun and really emotional to play in Louis Armstrong Stadium.”

His runner-up finish has seen him break the world’s Top 5 for the first time, as well as securing a place at the ITF Junior Masters in Chengdu next month. The next few weeks could in fact be the most important time of Musetti’s young career yet, with the chance to lift the Junior Davis Cup this weekend, another opportunity to represent his country at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in early October, before testing his skills against the game’s elite juniors in China in late October.

“I’m so proud of this. I think at the beginning of the year it was not my goal to reach the Masters, so yeah, it’s one dream come true,” he mused. “It’s really important for me to compete with the best players in the world. I think I will enjoy it and I will have fun there. I’ve never been to China so this will be the first time, so I think it’ll be a good time for me.”

Musetti is also keen to immerse himself in Chinese culture.

“I just want to try something different, it’s so different from Europe, and Italy. I think it will be fun and so interesting,” he continued. “I saw that we will go to visit the pandas. I’ve never seen them before.”

Right now, however, he is intent on delivering the title for Italy here in Budapest this week – to go with the triumph in 2012, when the team defeated Australia in Barcelona. The Italians, seeded No. 1 here, secured progress to the knockout stages after two days of the group stage, but a surprise defeat to Japan saw them go through as runners-up rather than group winners. But a win against Denmark in Friday’s quarterfinals has set the team up perfectly ahead of the semifinals on Saturday.

Musetti, in particular, looks to be in fine form, having won all three of his singles rubbers so far this week, including a testing three-setter against Denmark's Holger Rune in the last eight on Friday.

“We are a good team, a strong team, we are friends together so this I think will be the right way to approach the match,” he explained ahead of the clash with Denmark. “We will see what happens. I think we will enjoy our quarterfinal, and we hope to get the trophy.”

The full draws, results and the order of play are available here.