Mats Wilander believes that Carlos Alcaraz was ‘surprised’ by the consistently high level produced by Lorenzo Musetti during their French Open encounter.
The two locked horns in a feisty semi-final match, with the first set falling 6-4 to the Italian, before the Spaniard got things back on track with a 7-6(3) collection of the second set.
Unfortunately, Musetti injured his left thigh in the process, retiring in the fourth set after losing eight games in a row.
“I do think today that he [Alcaraz] was a little bit loose,” the Swedish tennis legend said, whilst speaking on TNT Sports’ coverage of the French Open.
“Maybe he was surprised by the level of Lorenzo Musetti. I was surprised by the level of Lorenzo Musetti. He thought he would be able to break down that one-handed backhand, and he wasn’t able to do that early on.
“But he is unbelievable when you see the gets that he gets, especially off the forehand side when he slides and comes up with the squash shot that is unbelievable.
“He is running faster than the ball, and I don’t know how fast the ball is travelling, but he is running faster. It’s amazing.”
Tim Henman, fellow TNT Sports contributor, was also impressed by the physicality of Alcaraz’s performance.
“His athletic ability is one of the other reasons why Alcaraz is so difficult to play against,” said the Brit.
“He not only has the shots, but he is able to really run down the ball and certainly hit it.”
In beating Musetti, Alcaraz became the fourth-youngest male singles player to reach at least one Grand Slam final for four consecutive years.
Additionally, the Spaniard (at 22 years and 20 days) is the fifth youngest male singles player to reach five Grand Slam finals – with Rafae Nadal, Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, and Mats Wilander ahead.
Despite the successful outcome, Alcaraz was humble as always, recognising the unfortunate way that the clash against Musetti concluded.
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“It’s never great getting through or winning the match like this,” the defending French Open champion said.
“Lorenzo is a great player. He has done an incredible clay season. He is one of the few players who has achieved at least the semi-finals in the biggest event on clay.
“I think just four players have done it before and he is the fifth player. That shows what an incredible player he is and I wish him all the best. A quick recovery and I’m pretty sure we are going to enjoy his tennis pretty soon.
“The first two sets were really tough. I had chances to break his serve to be up in the match but I could not make the most of it. He was playing great tennis.
“I won the second set with a little bit of relief. In the third set, I knew what I had to do, pushing him to the limit, just trying to be aggressive and not let him dominate the game. I was calmer. I could see the court more clearly and play great tennis at the beginning of the third set.”
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