Lorenzo Musetti has said competing with Carlos Alcaraz is the ‘toughest challenge in our sport’ after retiring in the fourth set of their clash at Roland Garros.
It was an impressive first couple of sets from Musetti as he took the match to an erratic Carlos Alcaraz.
Ultimately, Musetti’s body gave up on him as he retired from the match at 4-6 6-3 6-0 2-0 down to the defending champion.
Speaking after the match the Italian admitted it was a disappointing way for his Roland Garros campaign to end, “I mean, really honestly sad and disappointed on how it ended, but still a great match so far,” Musetti explained in his press conference.
“But yeah, I felt at the beginning of the third when I was serving, I start to, start 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 was, you know, 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.”
Speaking of the injury Musetti said he felt something while serving in the fourth set as he admitted there was too much risk in continuing, “No, I start to feel like the beginning of the fourth that I couldn’t go for the rallies, and I could not move like I was doing before,” Musetti stated.
“There was too much risk, you know, to take to go forward and to, you know, to be able to of course show something even for the crowd. Honestly, I felt from a serve I felt something, so I started from that, and then I, you know, called the physio and medical, and then after that, I started to think about it more, and I start to feel it was going worse and worse.”
It’s a disappointing end to what was a successful clay court season for Musetti who reached his first Masters 1000 final in Monte-Carlo.
That was followed by a semi-final in Rome and his first Roland Garros semi-final in Paris.
However, Musetti was well and truly beaten by Alcaraz for the third time this clay court season and Musetti acknowledged that competing with the Spaniard is the ‘toughest challenge in our sport,’ “Of course it’s difficult. It’s probably I think right now if not the toughest challenge in our sport, but one of them. I have to say that he’s really, really aggressive, so yeah, always have to stay there,” the Italian explained.
“Of course physically with the one-handed backhand, it’s not easy to manage to deal with, you know, some players like Carlos or Jannik or others. So of course physically for me it was really intense. At the end I was, you know, feeling these kind of problems. So definitely hard enough.
“I mean, that’s what champions do. Of course I knew it even before stepping on court that I had to play probably the best match of my career so far. For part of it, I was doing a great job, I would say, 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. So at the end if I have to analyze those two sets, they were really, really great sets. Of course the third one and let’s say the last two games, there was of course no chance to play at his level with this problem.”
Finishing his press conference Musetti said that he will have tests on his injury and doesn’t know if he will play the grass court season, “No, it’s too early to say. Of course in program it’s next tournament is Queen’s and then of course Wimbledon, but of course we are going to evaluate tomorrow what the exam will say, and we’re gonna of course update you guys and take a decision for what’s next.”
Last year Musetti reached the final at Queen’s Club and the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
