American Frances Tiafoe falls in quarterfinals at Roland Garros to Lorenzo Musetti

CNN

4 days ago

American Frances Tiafoe's hopes of reaching his first semifinal at Roland Garros came to an end against Italy's Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday.
Musetti triumphed 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Court Philippe-Chatrier to reach the final four of a grand slam for the second time in his career, having also done so at last year's Wimbledon.
The 23-year-old will now face either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or American 12-seed Tommy Paul in Friday's semifinals.
Both Tiafoe and Musetti were enjoying their best-ever runs at the French Open heading into their quarterfinal, and it was the latter who took an early advantage by breaking Tiafoe twice and wrapping up the opening set in 37 minutes.
The world No. 16 responded with a break in the third game of the second set before going on to level the match, but that proved to be Tiafoe's only break of serve on a challenging afternoon in Paris.
Musetti edged a narrow third set and claimed an early break in the fourth. He raced to victory from there, winning the third of three match points when Tiafoe put a simple forehand into the net.
The two-hour, 47-minute victory is the latest milestone in a superb clay-court season for Musetti, having recently reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters and the semifinals of the Madrid Open and Italian Open.
That run has seen him rise from 16th up to seventh in the world rankings, and a fourth consecutive semifinal appearance now awaits.
Despite the loss, Tiafoe will take confidence from his performances at this year's French Open. Having never previously reached beyond the second round, he breezed through his first four matches without dropping a set. Alongside Paul, the 27-year-old was the first American man to reach the final eight at Roland-Garros since Andre Agassi in 2003.
But Tiafoe was below his best in the quarterfinals, ending the match on 51 unforced errors. By contrast, Musetti hit 45 winners to Tiafoe's 33 and won an impressive 81% of his points on first serve.
Should he reach a first grand slam final at this year's French Open, then Musetti may well have to get past a dominant Alcaraz in the next round – a player who has already beaten him twice on clay this season.