ATP Tour

Musetti after Roland Garros retirement vs. Alcaraz: 'I felt closer to his level'

Lorenzo Musetti’s dream run at Roland Garros came to an end on Friday when he was forced to retire against defending champion Carlos Alcaraz due to an upper left leg injury.

Yet the 23-year-old Italian stands by his decision and, speaking after the semi-final clash, Musetti addressed the issue.

“I’m really sad and disappointed how it ended, but still a great match,” said Musetti. “I felt at the beginning of the third when I was serving, I started losing a little bit of strength on the left leg behind, and definitely was going worse and worse, so I decided to stop.

“I think it was the right decision to make, even if it was not what I wanted. Tomorrow I will do exams, and I will of course see and evaluate the situation.”

Musetti came out firing in his bid to reach his first Grand Slam final and took it to the defending champion across two tightly contested opening sets. But he was unable to continue, with Alcaraz leading 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-0, 2-0 when the Italian retired.

Having now lost each of the past three meetings with Alcaraz, all of which have come on clay this year, Musetti now trails 1-6 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. He is, however, able to draw on these matches to better understand where his game is compared to the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings.

“I think we both started really, really well, hitting the ball really well. Of course I had to play probably my best level of the tournament to stay there with him,” Musetti said. “I felt today honestly I stepped forward on my level. I felt closer to his level.

“I maintained the high level that we showed for two hours or whatever. So [I’m] really, really happy about that. That's a step forward because the last two matches were a little bit one way. I felt that today I had my chances to even try to go two sets up, but of course Carlos, he's playing really well. He's in really great shape. He deserves to go to the final.”

Despite the bitter nature of his exit in Paris, Musetti can look back on a remarkable campaign on European clay. He became just the fifth player in history to reach the semi-finals at all clay ATP Masters 1000 events and Roland Garros in one season. Musetti departs Paris with a 19-4 record on clay this year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

Reflecting on his clash with Alcaraz, Musetti acknowledged the nature of the occasion.

“I knew even before stepping on court that I had to play probably the best match of my career so far,” said Musetti. “For part of it, I was doing a great job and I was there physically, technically, mentally. I think I was playing right. Sometimes he wanted to be really aggressive, especially on the return side, and I served really good today.

“At the end if I have to analyse those two sets, they were really, really great sets. Of course the third one and the last two games, there was of course no chance to play at his level with this problem. So it was an unlucky situation, but I think in the end he probably had more than me.”

Musetti, who will leave the French capital up one spot to a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, is able to look ahead with confidence approaching the grass-court swing. He tallied a Tour-leading 12 wins on the surface last year with runs to the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the championship match at Queen’s Club.