Paris (EFE).- Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, world number two and defending champion, will play his second consecutive final at Roland Garros, after Italian Lorenzo Musetti, seventh in the world, retired from the match when he was losing 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-0 and 2-0 and 2 hours and 25 minutes had passed.

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Alcaraz will seek his second title in Paris, his fifth Grand Slam, against the winner of the match between the Italian Jannik Sinner, number 1 in the world, and the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who is seeking his 25th Grand Slam, the fourth on French clay.

The 22-year-old Spaniard secured his 21st victory of the year on clay, where only the Dane Holger Rune managed to defeat him in the Barcelona final, the third against Musetti, whom he defeated in the Monte Carlo final and the Rome semi-finals.

Alcaraz strings together thirteen victories at Roland Garros, where last year he won the tournament and the Olympic silver medal, becoming the fifth youngest tennis player to reach five Grand Slam finals. So far, he hasn’t lost any.

He advanced to the final against an opponent who gave him a lot of trouble for two sets, who has played the semi-finals of the three Masters 1,000 on clay, something that only five tennis players have achieved, and who was looking for the twentieth victory on that surface.

He dreamed of being able to surprise the Spaniard, but he didn’t even finish the match.

“It’s not easy to qualify with the withdrawal of a teammate”

“It’s not easy to qualify with a fellow player retiring,” said Alcaraz, who paid tribute to the Italian and acknowledged that he made it difficult for him during the first two sets.

“Then I raised the level, I didn’t let him dominate, I was myself and I was able to play my best tennis,” he said.

The greatness of champions is to keep their heads above water when the storm is brewing. Alcaraz survived a set and a half of erratic tennis, almost two hours in which he was unable to find his place in a Philippe Chatrier that acclaims him, but to which he couldn’t give what they deserve.

The forks were still clinking in the restaurants of Roland Garros, and the courts of the central court were whitening, the roof covered due to the threat of rain despite the fact that even a ray of sunshine was peeking through, when the two best clay court tennis players of the year set out in search of the final.

Alcaraz came out aggressively, only his firepower wasn’t doing as much damage as on other occasions, against a Musetti who defended with order and with the elegance that his one-handed backhand gives him. The Spaniard put in everything, the attack and the errors. The match was progressing slowly. He wasted a break point in the first set and his offensives, many of them in the form of drop shots, got stuck in the net.

From the rear Musetti awaited his moment, a well-learned lesson from football, a peck is enough to hit the prey. And he didn’t let it escape to take the first set, as he did a few weeks ago in the Monte Carlo final.

The slap left Alcaraz groggy, who, however, converted, this time yes, two break points in the third and eleventh games. But each time he failed to confirm them. His tennis wasn’t flowing, stuck in the spider web of a cunning Musetti, with the lesson learned from the two previous defeats.

The Wind Shifted in the Tiebreaker

The wind turned in the tiebreaker. The Italian wall began to show cracks and the champion regained oxygen. At last, his blows were paying off, it was worth continuing to strike. The aim improved and errors were reduced. The balls that had been going out were now hitting the mark in a game by Musetti, who could no longer cope with stemming the tide. A one-all draw, but above all, the Italian’s morale is in the doldrums. Alcaraz had managed, once again, to overcome a slump, there have been four in this Roland Garros, a roller coaster of emotions for his fans.

Unlike Spanish, the Italian’s slump was one that left a mark, a trail of lost games, a rosco, Alcaraz’s eighth in a Grand Slam, in 25 minutes, compared to the hour it took to close each previous set.

For a moment the physio appeared on the court, attended to Musetti but didn’t show any signs of physical problems. Only the lopsided score allowed one to imagine it. When he lost the second game of the fourth set he said enough and headed to the locker room, leaving the Spaniard free to advance to the final.