Key events
*Musetti 6-4 2-2 Alcaraz Ooh, Musetti makes 15-30 then Alcaraz unloads the suitcase at a hopeful forehand, on the run, gets nowhere near and will now face two break points. But Musetti only needs one, landing another crucial return close to the line, enough to elicit the netted riposte! He is playing the big points brilliantly!
*Musetti 6-4 1-2 Alcaraz Perhaps. A netted forehand ends a long rally and means 0-15, then a second serve, taken early, is swatted down the line for a winner. Next, a forehand return on to the line elicits an error that makes 0-40; Musetti saves the first break point with a big serve on to the T. But when he tries a drop, somewhat desperately, Alcaraz runs it down and tickles a far better version of the same. That was a very good game from the champ who, forced to up his level, has responded well.
Musetti 6-4 1-1 Alcaraz* Now it’s Alcaraz with the straightforward hold, but can he put Musetti under pressure on serve?
*Musetti 6-4 1-0 Alcaraz There are two ways of beating a superior player of Alcaraz’s level: the Wawrinka approach, which is going after everything and hoping for a good day, or hanging in there and winning the big points. So far, Musetti is pursuing the latter, and it’s also worth flagging what Coach Calv said about Alcaraz and his ability to lose focus or play slightly wildly; it looked to me like both were the case in the game that settled set one. Anyroad, Musetti holds easily at the start of the second, and his confidence will be through the roof, still on for reasons unclear.
Musetti 6-4 Alcaraz* Now then! Musetti takes a forehand early, murders a cross-court winner, and makes 0-15, then Alcaraz bashes a corner to corner forehand long; 0-30! And though the champ quickly halves the deficit, he again goes long to hand over two set points, then serves into the net! Pressure! And it’s Alcaraz who buckles., forced to backpeddle when Musetti hits a decent forehand length, such that he can’t control his riposte, blazing wide! Musetti takes a first set in which he’s been inferior but excellent, and who knows where he can go from here?!
*Musetti 5-4 Alcaraz A better hold from Musetti, who’s giving his first serve everything he’s got. He’s a game away fro the set, but can he get his return-game going? Coach Calv warned us he’d have to…
“Lorenzo has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past two years,” says Nick Gooch, “and a little like Federer, he has learned to make his one-handed backhand a different kind of weapon. When he’s on a streak, the great thing about his play is just how much he mixes it up, slowing down and speeding up seemingly at will to break down the rhythm of his opponent. And in that, he’s pretty much like Alcaraz himself! Don’t count him out!”
Problem is, everything he does, Alcaraz does better. He’s playing at maximum capacity to stay level, whereas the champ has several gears he’s yet to engage.
Musetti 4-4 Alcaraz* Musetti is struggling to make any impression on the Alcaraz serve, and though he plays a nice drop for 40-15, a leaping overhead ends another one-sided point. As we near the business end of the set, pressure is growing.
*Musetti 4-3 Alcaraz Not for the first time, Alcaraz plays a terrific first point, then nets his volley. It feels unlikely such behaviour will span the entirety of the match and when Musetti paints a drop wide for 30-all, you fear for him. Shonuff, an excellent return, backed up by a wrong-footing backhand, raises break point … but a decent first serve is hooked wide on return; deuce. And hold tight Lorenzo Musetti: he closes out in short order and is playing pretty much as well as he can. He needs to.
Musetti 3-3 Alcaraz* Alcaraz swipes a +1 backhand wide, then next point takes the centre of the baseline and sticks Musetti on his bike until he can’t take any more … then again, before levelling things once more. Real talk, though, it looks a matter of time until the champ converts his superiority into games.
*Musetti 3-2 Alcaraz Alcaraz doesn’t seem to respect Musetti’s second serve, receiving it from inside the baseline, and he attacks one at 0-15, only to net his volley having done the hard work. Next point, the same thing happens again, Alcaraz planting his return on to the line before finishing the point shortly afterwards, and he’s starting to break his opponent down. Blessedly, though, Musetti then lands a first serve which enables him to dictate the rally, but the standard he’s having to hit in almost every point he wins, along with the running he’s being forced to do, does not augur well, and we move to deuce when Alcaraz nails a return, sends his man to both corners, then finishes with an overhead. Musetti, though, is taking every chancehe can fashion to go for his shots, running around his backhand to shriek a forehand winner down the line, and another big serve allows him to secure his hold. He’s hanging on, in a manner that is impressive but does not look sustainable.
Musetti 2-2 Alcaraz* A fine return, down the line and on to the chalk, earns Musetti 15-30 – he does not need asking twice – but Alcaraz takes the next three points in typically bouncing style and my sense is that if he’s to lose, at least two of three sets will need a tiebreak.
*Musetti 2-1 Alcaraz Musetti looks to be targeting Alcaraz’s backhand, a tactic that makes him 15-all, and a big serve backs it up. Then, at 30-15, the rally of the match so far, Alcaraz clobbering a backhand return that looks good enough to secure the point, but his +1 isn’t good enough. No matter: he dominates the point nevertheless … only for Musetti to stick in it in classic clay-court style, every extra ball he asks his opponent to hit giving him a better shot at stealing it. And he does, there are the net to put away a volley before quickly securing his hold. He may not win, but one thing we can say for sure: he’s turned up.
Musetti 1-1 Alcaraz* How can you be sponsored by Nike and turn up in beige and cream? Someone needs to ave a word wiv someone. Up 15-0, Alcaraz plays the shot he missed on break point, a spiteful forehand down the line, but at 40-15 a hopeful and, dare I say it, lazy drop, gives Musetti a sniff. For all the good it does him: a backhand falls long and the champ looks good. Of course he does.
Musetti 1-0 Alcaraz (*denotes server) A netted forehand gives Alcaraz 0-15, then a long backhand restores parity and a good point for each players takes us to 30-all; already Musetti is under pressure. And when Alcaraz wallops a forehand from the backhand corner to the Italian’s backhand corner – exactly the kind of shot we talked about earlier – he can’t control his response and must now face break point. Alcaraz quickly manipulates the rally to open a passing lane down the line … only to hit the net, a let-off for Musetti. And from there, he closes out a highly necessary hold.
Musetti to serve, ready … play.
And what a reception Alcaraz gets. He looks ready to have fun; the roof is closed, for no obvious reason.
Here come our players…
Musetti is one of very few top players with a one-handed backhand, and with good reason – it’s disadvantageous. Even Roger Federer, his idol, had problems with his, and I’d expect Alcaraz to attack it with pace whenever possible, so look out for the forehand down the line.
Another potential issue for Musetti is that usually, his arsenal of spins is something he has over his opponents, but Alcaraz is able to impart serious top, and the consequent bounce, even on clay will be an issue.
Jim Courier is the spit of Bastian Schweinsteiger.
So how does Musetti win? This is the question I put to Coach Calv, our resident expert, and his response – “Hope he has one of his wild days” – reminds me of when the England cricket team were making plans to get Jacques Kallis out and the best they could come up with was “run out candidate early in his innings”. So I push him, and this is what comes back: “He has concentration lapses as well and his serve at the elite level isn’t the best. The analysts do this grading thing for each shot and his serve is something like 14th in the top 20. You have to have a good day returning.”
Musetti has enjoyed an impressive tournament. In round one and two, he dismissed inferior opponents in straights, then in three, four, and five, he came from behind to see off Marino Navone, a clay-court specialist before despatching Holger Rune and Francis Tiafoe, all in four sets. He’s a much bigger man than he was, but big enough to hit through Alcaraz? We shall see.
Preamble
Salut et bienvenue à Roland-Garros 2025 – 13ième jour!
Maintenant alors! Just yesterday, we experienced the end of an era. Iga Swiatek may well return to win more French Opens and grand slams, but after her defeat – and the manner of it – she is, now and forever, fully vincible. The pack are coming.
Today, though, we might just experience the end of an aeon. Novak Djokovic is indisputably the greatest men’s tenniser of all time, satisfying both the number test and the eye test. He’s not the most beautiful, charismatic or creative, nor does he have the best hands or feel. But if you needed someone to play for your life or your chilli McCoys, you’d have no choice but to pick him.
However, he’s not won a major since September 2023 and in that time, Jannik Sinner, his opponent this evening, and Carlos Alcaraz, playing this afternoon, have completed their coup, sharing the five subsequent titles between them. Sinner, winner of 19 grand slam matches in a row, has sauntered through the draw without dropping a set; Alcaraz has improved through the rounds and is the defending champion.
It’s true that Djokovic produced a performance astounding even by his astounding standards to eliminate him in the last eight of the Australian Open, but the hamstring strain the process forced upon him meant he could not complete his semi-final. And, though he is currently fit, we can no longer be certain that the ultimate bionic man has in him another performance of the quality and intensity that devastated Alexander Zverev on Wednesday. And make no mistake, he will need one.
But first, Alcaraz takes on Lorenzo Musetti, the surging young Italian who also made the last four of last year’s Wimbledon. The pair have met twice on clay recently, Alcaraz winning over three sets in the Monte Carlo final and in two tight sets in the Italian Open semis. Which is to say Musetti a very fine and very stylish all-court player, full of confidence and zest … who hasn’t yet shown us he has the firepower necessary to beat the best on the biggest occasions.
So as we wait for a potentially epochal day to unfold, the likelihood is that the new firm asserts itself once more, Sinner and Alcaraz too good, too young and too nasty to be denied. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that with Djokovic and with tennis, the impossible is possible. On y va!
Play: 2.30pm local. 1.30pm BST.
