This week, we talk a lot about triumphant youth at Bercy, like the semi-final which will oppose Félix Auger-Aliassime, 22, and Holger Rune, 19, on Saturday afternoon. But the late-tournament veteran is fine, thank you. And it is still him who remains the favorite…
Friday evening, in the quarter-finals, Novak Djokovic, 35, outclassed Lorenzo Musetti (6-0, 6-3 in 1h14) to afford another weekend in Paris, where he has already won at six occasions (a record). Even if he has played little in recent months (notably deprived of an American tour due to non-vaccination against Covid), the man with 21 Grand Slams is quite simply undefeated since his defeat in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros against to Rafael Nadal. In Wimbledon, Tel Aviv or Astana, no one could challenge his superiority.
For a good twenty minutes, the unfortunate Musetti, 20, would have preferred to be everywhere except on the Central of the Accor Arena. The Italian, world No. 23, impressed by the challenge and the CV of his opponent, was simply rolled by Djokovic in the first set. Not easy, or rather very easy to summarize. A nice bubble, eight small points scored and the inability to do anything against a metronomic, surgical or ruthless Serb, to choose from.
“I had prepared the match well, I knew what my tactics were and I executed them perfectly, summarizes Djokovic. It was to be very aggressive, to take time away from him. It worked well. I played my best game of the week. »
“Kick the buttocks a little more” of the young generation
Too simple even for the former world No. 1, guilty of a relaxation at the start of the second round. To the point of being broken and leading 1-2 more by his unforced errors than under the winning strikes of his still groggy opponent. A short-lived moment of distraction. In the next game, the Djoker, on his fourth break point, quickly resumed his inexorable march forward.
The Transalpin, who remained on a success at the ATP 250 tournament in Naples, did what he could to resist. But the step was much too high. On Saturday, the Belgrader will appear for his 74th Masters 1000 semi-final, a category where he has already won 38 times. Simply dizzying. He said during the week that he wanted to “kick the butt a little more” of the younger generation. We can always count on him… “I haven’t played much this season and I’ve had a lot of time to prepare, he smiles. So I’m very happy with my current level. »
