Roland Garros: Lorenzo Musetti, rival of Alcaraz: with the bandera of the Italian classical tradition

At 21, the 18-year-old player from Carrara defends a game based on technical delicacy. He defeated the Spaniard last summer in the Hamburg final.

Two years ago, when he took the five sets to Novak Djokovic in the round of 16, in his first appearance in the final draw of a Grand Slam, some very authoritative voice in Italian journalism commented that he was the good guy, not Jannik Sinnerthen already doing first steps with the best, nor Matthew Berrettini, with signs of a lot of life, especially on a fast track. the good one was Lorenzo Musetti. It remains to be seen if that judgment had an opportunistic air or if, given the professional consideration that the person who issued it deserves, it was not far from the truth regarding the young man who this Sunday (around 4:00 p.m., Eurosport) is measured against Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round of Roland Garros.

Sinner has played two Masters 1000 finals, the last of them last spring in Miami, after beating Alcaraz, who was defending the title, in a spectacular semifinal, and also had Djokovic on the brink of the canvas, in the quarterfinals of the last Wimbledon. He is number 9 in the world and has won seven titles, although all of them are of a modest category. In this edition of Roland Garros he crashed in the second round against the German Daniel Altmaier79. Ballasted by injuries, Berrettini, also with seven titles, none of them high, absent in Paris in order to focus on tournaments on grass, has not been able to confirm the expectations unleashed when he reached the Wimbledon final in 2021.

Musetti walks more slowly, different from both, a fine stylist he met last year in Naples and Hamburg, a tournament where he beat Alcaraz in the final, the endorsement of a progression that does not stop. At 21 years old, the player from Carrara travels a bit behind the new wave where Alcaraz, Holguer Rune and Sinner himself.

those who come

“The first thing I see in Carlos is a friend and after he started his path, he is a new generation, he is the first to win a Grand Slam title after the Big Three. We will try, Holger, Jannik and the others just behind, to get closer to him. The match in Hamburg gave me a lot of confidence and I hope the match will be good. Of course, the positions are different, the states are different, but we will benefit if we play against each other”, he commented after overwhelming Cameron Norrie14 favorite, in the third round.

Possessing an elegant one-handed backhand, this handsome tennis player with a vocation for acting, as he commented in a interview with the website claytenis.comhas been a semifinalist this year for the Conde de God, where he lost between sets against Stefanos Tsitsipas, and defeated, this time, Djokovic in the Monte Carlo round of 16, before falling against Sinner. His game fits in substance and form with the classic tradition of Italian tennis, led by Adriano Panattathe man who twice defeated Bjorn Borgsix-time champion of the tournament, at Roland Garros and lifted the cup in 1976.

“I see myself as someone who has evolved, I have more experience and I have played many more matches. I won, of course, but I also lost. These defeats allowed me to see who I am as a player. Now I am more prepared than two years ago against no”he says.