Carlos Alcaraz has joined some of the game’s all-time greats after booking his place in the Italian Open final for the first time.
In a thrilling contest in front of a passionate Rome crowd, Alcaraz beat Italian favourite Lorenzo Musetti 6-3 7-6[4] in a contest laced with drama and intrigue.
Alcaraz came into this tournament with doubts over his fitness levels after he was forced to pull out of the Madrid Masters, but he has confirmed he is ready to take on the game’s best with his strong run in the Italian capital.
“Today was a really difficult day with the conditions, the wind was tough to play with,” said Alcaraz, quoted on the ATP Tour website.
“It wasn’t about playing brilliant, spectacular tennis. It was about playing smart tennis, playing solid, going to the point when you can, and waiting for the chance to play aggressively.
“I think I did that pretty well, I stayed strong mentally when things didn’t go to my side.
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“Today the crowd was for Lorenzo. So it wasn’t easy. It was great honestly. The atmosphere was great. I have to say thank you for them being respectful as well.
“Obviously, there are some times they were cheering for him in some moments between serves or whatever. But in general they were respectful. So I have to thank them.”
“In the final, let’s see who I’m gonna play against. Both are playing great.”
The win saw Alcaraz carve himself some more records that put him alongside the all-time greats of the game, with his level of consistency even better than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal this stage of his career.
Since 1973, Alcaraz now trails only three players for winning percentage against ATP top 10 opponents, with Bjorn Borg, Novak Djokovic and Boris Becker ahead of him in this statistic.
This win against world No 9 Musetti took Alcaraz’s record of wins against top ten oppponents to 65%, with a 39-21 winning record against players ranked in the ATP’s elite list.
In addition, since the introduction of ATP 1000 tournaments in 1990, Alcaraz (26.7%, 8/30) is now one of four to reach the final from 25+% of ATP Masters 1000 main draws entered, along with Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.
He also surpassed his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Alcaraz (22y 2d) is the second-youngest player to reach the final at three ATP Masters 1000 events on clay, older than only Rafael Nadal, who reached the Hamburg final in 2008 final aged 20 years 345 days.
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