Tennis
French Open
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Updated 2m ago
Men’s singles semifinals day at the 2025 French Open is in full swing as the four title hopes aim to reach Sunday’s Grand Slam final.
Champion Carlos Alcaraz (2) fought back to win the second set in a tiebreak after losing the first against Paris Olympics bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti (8) on show court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros.
In the later session, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner aims to make his first French Open final against seven-time finalist Novak Djokovic (6).
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Musetti 6-4, 6-6 (1-4*) Alcaraz
Alcaraz raising his level here. He knows how important these moments are — especially off the missed opportunity of that last service game.
He races out into a 3-0 lead with a minibreak and Musetti nets a lazy backhand down the line for 4-1 with two Alcaraz serves to come.
This is Musetti’s first tiebreak at this Grand Slam.
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That is the second time this set Alcaraz broke and then was immediately broken back.
Musetti is hitting some gorgeous single-handed backhands — a day before the 10th anniversary of Stan Wawrinka producing arguably the finest ever exhibition of that shot, on this court against Novak Djokovic in the 2015 final.
Musetti 6-4, 6-6 (*0-0) Alcaraz
Woah! A SENSATIONAL one-handed backhand crosscourt from Musetti takes advantage of an earlier double fault from Alcaraz and earns two break points.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this Carlos.
And there we are. On the first, Alcaraz goes long of the baseline mid-rally and from serving for a match-levelling second set, Alcaraz and Musetti head into a tiebreak.
Musetti’s first serve — and his advantage over Alcaraz with it — is why he is leading this match.
It has got him out of adversity time and again, and was reflected in the way the points were shaking out.
Musetti was up 43-34 in points over four shots, but down 28-22 in long points.
He couldn’t keep the wolf from the door in the 11th game of the second set though, and Alcaraz broke for the chance to level the match.
Alcaraz is also slightly more efficient behind his first serve than Musetti, winning 67 percent of points there vs. 63 per cent.
So it was the frequency that the Italian was finding his targets, that was keeping his nose in front — until now.
Musetti 6-4, 5-6* Alcaraz
Now then… This is the first time Alcaraz has a look at 0-30 on Musetti’s serve.
There are audible groans when his next return is into the net, ahead of a 205km/h (127m/h) serve that Alcaraz gets nowhere near.
But again, Alcaraz works a shot at break point and this time, he makes Musetti cover the ground before earning a smash to clinch his second break in this second set.
The crowd were desperate for him to seal that. Alcaraz needed it. Big moments, ahead of Alcaraz serving for the second set now…
As Carlos Alcaraz pulls on the thread of this Lorenzo Musetti service game, hoping to find a hole, Musetti’s box implore him to “spingere”, i.e. ‘push, push’.
Critical juncture in the match.
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Musetti 6-4, *5-5 Alcaraz
A long return from Musetti ensures that this time, Alcaraz holds to 15 and takes us to 5-5 in this second set.
A second set the defending champion really cannot afford to lose.
A reminder of the folly of the official policy on this, per the Roland Garros website.
Any match that starts with the roof closed will continue that way until the end of the match.
If the weather improves and play can continue in the open air, the referee may decide to open the roof at the end of the match for the following encounter.
The FFT has not responded to requests for comment on the rationale for today’s closing of the roof, which came despite it not raining at the start of the match.
Carlos Alcaraz is playing a gameplan that works with the roof open. He’s hitting inside-out forehands into Lorenzo Musetti’s one-handed backhand, which would ordinarily spin up and out of his strike zone.
Under the roof, they’re in the slot and Musetti can tee off. The same is true on the forehand side.
It’s now sunny outside and warm. The indoor conditions are the same for both players, but such a match-altering decision without good reason feels like a huge unforced error from the tournament.
Alcaraz is not winning the big points in this match, as two more break points go begging.
Had he taken one of them he’d have been serving to level the match at one-set all.
Instead he’s now coming out 5-4 down and serving to stop Musetti taking a two-set lead.
Musetti 6-4, 5-4* Alcaraz
A beautiful forehand return from Musetti’s sneaky serve down the middle gets him a look at 30-30 — but again, on the next point, Alcaraz makes a mistake before he makes an impact.
Musetti is left muttering however, as he goes long from the baseline to bring up the first deuce of this entire second set.
Musetti’s ball-striking pins Alcaraz back on his heels and then into the next, before Alcaraz steps up by finally breaking down the Italian’s defence and teeing up break point — only to look quizzically at the clay as he pulls his backhand wide.
The door is ajar again with a third break point, but Musetti heads straight for the serve-volley and it does the trick, leading to his hold.
Here we are again. Musetti 5-4 up and Alcaraz serving to save the set. It didn’t go very well last time…
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Musetti 6-4, *4-4 Alcaraz
Alcaraz holds again, limiting the damage to just one break per set right now.
But most telling is the repeated scream of ‘Vamos!’ after the last couple of points.
He’s seemingly trying to fire himself up here — and therefore feeling he’s playing at a current level that needs a gee-up.
Which he is.
By contrast, Lorenzo Musetti is serving at over 70 percent, which is most of why he has evaded some close games on serve.
This has not been a good serving day for Alcaraz, who has got 49 percent of his first deliveries in.
And he’s won just 67 percent of those points.
He needs to boost those numbers or this could get very awkward for him.
Musetti 6-4, 4-3* Alcaraz
Now is very much NOT the time for Lorenzo Musetti to open the door for Carlos Alcaraz — and a double fault at 15-15 threatens to do just that.
The next two are much better though, before the pair treat Chatrier to a lively rally that brings out the between-the-legs shot from Alcaraz…
And the forehand volley at the net from Musetti that tucks away the hold.
The excitable chattering from Italian Lorenzo Musetti’s box (no national stereotyping…) has been near-incessant.
‘Allez Lore’, ‘Forza Lore’, and plenty of other audible exhortations have been spurring Musetti on.
Not so much from Carlos Alcaraz’s side. Maybe that’s how he likes it.
But it feels like Musetti has more of the tide behind him in terms of support, cheers coming more generally for the underdog around Chatrier too, and is surfing the wave of that support.
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Musetti 6-4, *3-3 Alcaraz
I just don’t think I’ve seen Alcaraz miss long and wide so often as he has so far here.
He is keeping it together though, and Musetti deserves huge credit for the performance level he has produced so far.
Another 30-30 for Musetti, but Alcaraz takes this one away from him in double-quick time to hold.
Musetti’s vanishingly rare single-handed backhand tends to get more attention, but he’s hit a few huge forehands in the last couple of games to break back and then hold for 3-2.
He also changed things up in the last game by serve-volleying on more than one occasion.
Alcaraz just can’t quite string it together — he might need one of his trademark mad steal points to energise himself and the crowd.
A little surprised that Alcaraz hasn’t been on at the umpire about the closed roof.
The ball doesn’t bounce as high in these conditions, and that favors Musetti against Alcaraz’s heavy topspin — which can kick up off the clay on warm, dry days.
If it’s raining, that’s moot. With the weather how it is now, he’d have reason to complain.
The French Open is meant to be an outdoor sport.
