Hamburg (SID) – The Italian Lorenzo Musetti stole the show from tennis prodigy Carlos Alcaraz and surprisingly won the title at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum after a thriller. The 20-year-old outsider prevailed in a high-class final 6: 4, 6: 7 (6: 8), 6: 4 against the Spaniard, who was a year younger, and won his first ATP title – although he initially won five in the second set had awarded match points.
“I have no words for it. It was a roller coaster ride. So many match balls,” Musetti said after the 2:46 hour match: “It was crucial that I stayed calm. I didn’t want to show him how I looked. “
At the WTA tournament in the same place on Saturday, the American Bernarda Pera also surprisingly triumphed. The 27-year-old won the final against world number two Anett Kontaveit (Estonia) 6:2, 6:4. Just a week ago, Pera celebrated the first tournament win of her career in Budapest.
Alcaraz previously won all of his 14 matches this year at ATP 500 tournaments, which include Hamburg. The athlete from Murcia had already secured his first jump into the top five in the world when he reached the final – as the youngest player since Rafael Nadal 17 years ago. His steep ascent continues despite the painful defeat in the hard-fought match.
This year the youngster has triumphed at the Masters tournaments in Miami and Madrid, as well as in Rio and Barcelona. He has now lost one of the six ATP finals of his career for the first time. Musetti played cleverly and initially showed no nerves. When the score was 5: 4 in the second set, he initially missed two match points, and three more in the tie-break. But Musetti was back in the third set.
Alcaraz apparently does not allow himself a break. The tournament organizers in the Croatian town of Umag are also planning with the crowd puller as number one on the seeding list. Alcaraz apparently wants to fully exploit the clay court season before continuing on hard courts in the USA.
