The Spaniard and the Serbian advance to the quarterfinals with their best version and will face Ofner/Tsitsipas and Khachanov in search of that match
MADRID, 4 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz beat the Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on his intractable line this Sunday and thus reached the quarterfinal round of Roland Garros, the second ‘Grand Slam’ of the season , just like the Serbian Novak Djokovic advanced, getting closer and closer to crossing paths with the Murcian.
The world number one once again found a version out of the reach of the rest, a wall with an answer for everything, seeking to conquer the land of Rafa Nadal, who would be his second ‘big’ after the US Open. The man from Manacor, who on Saturday announced another five months off due to his psoas injury, has two serious favorites to succeed him, who would meet in the semifinals.
Alcaraz did not make the triumphant entrance that he had been making this week in his matches in Paris, but he showed that he adapts and that, sooner or later, his quality appears. From 0-2, the Murcian put a 5-2 already synonymous with the first set in the pocket. In the second, the pressure from the Spaniard was forcing the Italian to make an error, in an exchange of ‘breaks’ that gave way to another streak of Alcaraz.
The serve left Musetti at a bad time, in the seventh game, when the man from El Palmar put up another 5-2 that he did not let go. Desperately, the Italian did not prevent Alcaraz from controlling the rhythm of the third set, with a lot of energy from the Spaniard. In the fifth game, it was one winning shot after another from Murcia to get the defining ‘break’.
The world number one, champion in Barcelona and Madrid on this land tour, took revenge for the defeat against Musetti last year in the Hamburg final to repeat the quarterfinals at the French Open like last year, albeit with a much higher status now. In the quarterfinals, Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil will face the winner of the duel next this Sunday between Sebastian Ofner and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
On the same side of the draw and as a stellar match on the horizon, Djokovic also fulfilled his pass to the quarterfinals, in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 defeat of the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas. The two-time champion, looking to stay at the top with 23 ‘greats’, played his best game on clay this season, which he did not have with everyone on his side after Monte Carlo, Bosnia and Rome.
Thus, the man from Belgrade barely failed against a Varillas who did not have the slightest option of epic, exhausted in his three five-set matches this week, his best ‘Grand Slam’ so far. In his prelude to that possible appointment that everyone is waiting for in Paris against Alcaraz, ‘Nole’ will face the Russian Karen Khachanov, who beat Lorenzo (1-6, 6-4, 7-6(7), 6-1) sonego.