• Eighths Djokovic wakes up from his sleep to Rods
  • Crónica Alcaraz deploys all its arsenal on Musetti
  • Rafa Nadal Another five months off after being operated on the psoas and hip

While many of his 14 titles at Roland Garros had an imperial itinerary, in some of his triumphant steps through Paris Rafael Nadal also knew how to interpret the moment to take flight, to make that leap of quality that would allow him to approach the goal more quickly. It was like this, without going any further, in the last edition, when after needing five sets in the eighth against a great Felix Auger-Aliassime he shook Novak Djokovic in the quarters with a formidable performance towards a final where he would sweep Casper Ruud. It also happened in 2013, after suffering more than necessary in the first two rounds, against Daniel Brands and Martin Klizan, en route to a spectacular semifinal in which he defeated the Serb in five sets before crushing David Ferrer in the final. In 2011 he took a championship scare against John Isner in the first round, having to use the five partials. And the road was not entirely easy in 2006: four sets in a tough round of <> against Paul Henri-Mathieu and as many a round later against Lleyton Hewitt.

It is not that Carlos Alcaraz had hesitated excessively in his first three matches of this edition in Paris, but there was a greater exuberance in his game in his eighth-round duel against Lorenzo Musetti, whom he won 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2, in two hours and eight minutes. With hardly any rival in his debut in the first round against Flavio Cobolli, an Italian from the previous one, he then left the only set to date against Taro Daniel, 112th, to stop in the eighth the lukewarm reaction of Denis Shapovalov, 32nd, and leave him behind without further history. Alcaraz did what was necessary to save the games without major setbacks, knowing that there would be commitments in which he would need to raise the bar.

"I've shown a great level in every game. I have not reserved anything, but it is true that when you go through rounds you have better rivals who demand more from you. It was by far my best game, yes, I grew," he said at the press conference afterwards.

It's a quality that distinguishes great players, and he's been for a long time. He did it himself in the last and rugged US Open, with three consecutive victories on the limit of five sets: Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner, with match point saved in between, and Frances Tiafoe, before prevailing in four sets against Ruud in the final.

Margin of progression

"I started a little nervous, but I quickly recovered the good level and calmed down to be focused all the time. He has perhaps lowered his arms a little. I played very well, but I know you can always improve," he added about Sunday's game.

Musetti, 21, had beaten him last summer in the final of the ATP 250 in Hamburg, on clay, and along with Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Martin Etcheverry formed the small group of men who had not given up a single set at this Roland Garros. He is number 18 in the world and has a suggestive future. Alcaraz connected 42 winning shots, to 17 of his opponent, won 79% of his approaches to the net, compared to 56 of this one, and lavished evenly in the left, 23 each. He was the fast, creative and explosive player who landed on the circuit like a bomb in 2022, won the US Open and climbed sooner than anyone else to the attic of the ranking, which he now occupies again.

This Tuesday he will be for the fourth time in the penultimate round of a major, after doing it in 2021 at the US Open, when he lost to Auger-Aliassime, last year in Paris, beaten by Alexander Zverev, and again in New York, with a happy ending.

"I feel very good physically, tennisically and mentally. I know that I impose a very high pace, and whoever wants to beat me will have to maintain that level for a long time. The greatest, Rafa, Djokovic and Federer, are because they have always been capable of doing it. And that's what I want to look like them in."

He awaits on Tuesday Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom he has defeated in all four of their meetings.

  • tennis
  • Carlos Alcaraz
  • Rafa Nadal
  • Novak Djokovic

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