For all his undoubted talent, Lorenzo Musetti was in danger of becoming a player better known for valiant defeats than victories. Not any more. After the way Musetti went about his week’s work in Hamburg, where he overcame all manner of adversity to claim his first tour-level title with a 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 victory over Carlos Alcaraz, he need no longer worry about being remembered mainly as the guy who blew two-set leads against Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the French Open.
That label was never likely to stick, of course. Not for a man of Musetti’s lavish gifts. Few young players even come close to matching Alcaraz’s extraordinary variety of shot, but the 20-year-old’s elegant all-court game marks him out as one of them. All the same, those notable defeats in Paris raised questions about Musetti’s stamina and mental fortitude that it has taken until now to answer.
For all their ostensible similarities, Alcaraz is in certain crucial respects the antithesis of Musetti. While the Italian was contesting the first final of his career, Alcaraz was contesting his fifth in five months and sixth in all. While Musetti had previously been known as a man of near misses, Alcaraz has rapidly acquired a reputation as a force of nature who never knows when he is beaten. Twice this year the 19-year-old Spaniard has won from match point down, first against Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the Barcelona Open semi-finals and then at Roland Garros, where he overcame compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas in an epic contest spanning four hours and 34 minutes.
History looked set to repeat itself in Hamburg, where Alcaraz fended off five match points to force a deciding set. This time, though, Musetti found a way to flip the script, to answer the doubts about his staying power and mentality. For the better part of two sets, he had outplayed Alcaraz, his relentless consistency from the baseline interwoven with frequent and adroit use of the drop shot, some mighty hitting off the forehand, and an impressive display on serve. But an overhit forehand and a brilliant running pass from Alcaraz denied him two match points as he served for the title at 5-4, and further heartache followed as the Spaniard reeled him in from 6-3 down in the ensuing tiebreak.
Musetti’s misery was compounded when he double-faulted for the second and last time in the contest to concede the set, but he never let his head drop, biding his time throughout the decider before breaking in the final game.
“It was a roller-coaster until the end,” said Musetti. “I had so many match points.
“I think the key of the match was to keep calm and [have] all the patience in myself, because it was really not easy. Carlos was putting so much effort on the match points and when he was down, so it was not easy to find the energy to come back.”
Alcaraz was spurred on by an acute sense of injustice. As he served for the match, Musetti chased down a drop shot before pulling off a tremendous reflex volley. What only Alcaraz seemed to spot was that the ball had bounced twice. He remonstrated at length with the chair umpire, Aurelie Tourte, but it was to no avail.
Booed and whistled for his troubles, Alcaraz gestured towards his ear after levelling the match, demanding the appreciation his efforts merited. The crowd were not slow to respond. Alcaraz may have lost a final for the first time in his career but, on a day when he was never quite at his electric best, his reputation as a fighter was embellished every bit as much as his ranking, which rose one place to a career-high fifth.
“I think he deserved the win today, he played better than me,” said Alcaraz. “He was more aggressive all the time. I didn’t play my best, but I fought until the last ball and I’m really happy with that.”