Carlos Alcaraz rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory on Sunday against an ailing Lorenzo Musetti to win the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in Monaco.
The second-seeded Spaniard claimed his sixth ATP Masters 1000 title and first since Indian Wells in March 2024. It was the 18th career title for the four-time Grand Slam winner, who turns 22 next month.
Musetti, playing in his first Masters 1000 final, struggled with an apparent injury to his right leg in the third set in a match that lasted 1 hour and 54 minutes. The 23-year-old Italian, seeded 13th, received treatment after losing the first three games of the deciding set.
“It is not the way I would have wanted to win a match,” Alcaraz said. “Thinking about Lorenzo, he has been through a tough week, played long matches. I feel sorry for him. It is one of his best results, ending up like this is not easy. Hopefully it is nothing serious and he will be 100 percent soon.”
Musetti managed only 10 winners — seven in the first set — compared to 30 for Alcaraz, who converted six of eight break chances and saved seven of nine break points.
He acknowledged his physical limitations.
“I was feeling the ball really well today. I had a clear mind what I had to do. But physically I was struggling,” said Musetti, who wasn’t sure of the exact injury. “From the beginning I was trying to compensate a little bit with the freedom to play.
“At the end, the physical problems and the fatigue and stress accumulated in the past days and past matches was there. So unfortunately I couldn’t finish the match. I mean, I couldn’t fight ’til the end.”
It was the third Masters 1000 title on clay for Alcaraz, the reigning French Open champion who also won in Madrid in 2022 and 2023.
Alcaraz, who also went three sets in the second round (Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo) and quarterfinals (France’s Arthur Fils), dropped the first set to Musetti in 42 minutes after committing 14 of his 32 unforced errors in the match.
“I’m really happy to win Monte-Carlo for the first time,” Alcaraz said. “It has been a really difficult week with a lot of difficult situations. I am proud with how I dealt with everything. It has been a difficult month for me, so coming here and seeing the hard work pay off makes me happy.”
Alcaraz, who will rise one spot to No. 2 in the world rankings following his performance this week, improved to 4-1 in his head-to-head series with Musetti.
It was an agonizing finish to a strong week for Musetti, who scored top-10 victories against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals and Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the semifinals.
The start time for the match was moved up three hours due to the threat of rain in the principality.
–Field Level Media
