Key events
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.
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