Yes, Carlos Alcaraz may have stood out as the winner and will be back to defend his men’s singles crown on clay tomorrow night. But at least we saw some amazing displays from Italian Lorenzo Musetti who got away with a good start including a close 2nd half battle. It’s so unfortunate his body wasn’t able to cope from there where Carlos won it so easily before Musetti retired hurt earlier in the 4th set.
Also from this semi finals day at Court Phillipe Chatrier, there was another Italian also in action on the main stage by the recently returned Jannik Sinner from his three-month doping ban, who took on the veteran & gold medalist Novak Djokovic.
Easy to say that Sinner successfully wrapped up the other semi finals match left, right and centre against the experienced master in straight sets.
There’s no denying the permanent class swagger off Novak’s natural game in which he got away with some amazing strikes but it looks as though Sinner had the last laugh on areas where Novak struggled to reach and that was that as if the Italian swept all three stage wins explaining himself there in NASCAR terms.
It could’ve been an all-Italian Final if Musetti stayed fit all along and possibly throw out Alcaraz in the process but Sinner is still there & looks like he could come back better if he’s able to beat down the Spaniard & add that Roland Garros triumph to his grand slam trophies list.
Don’t forget Alcaraz still hasn’t yet won an Australian Open title likewise with someone who also dominated on clay in the women’s singles draw up until Thursday’s semi-final from Iga Swiatek.
If he could win this grand slam along with the rest at Wimbledon and US Open again, Carlos is setting up to finish it all come January 2026 at Melbourne Park.
And looking at the Aussie performances on show in Paris, only one player went as far as the fourth round in Alexei Popyrin.
He had a great run as the 25th feed with some good wins including a fiery 3rd set encounter even via straight sets v Nuno Borges from Portugal before he was succumbed with his campaign a few days later by Tommy Paul from the USA.
Nothing much to say other than a shock elimination by Alex De Minaur who came off tired and unable to hold on his good lead against eventual Quarter-Finalist Alexander Bublik. Yes, Bublik was eliminated at some point later by Sinner but still it wasn’t a good look which wasn’t really his fault except he had a lot going on with always playing tennis worldwide.
