Lorenzo Musetti admitted that he was surprised by the power and speed Carlos Alcaraz generated with his forehand in the opening shot of a point, and also noted that the six-time Grand Slam champion looked extremely focused throughout the encounter.
After Alex de Minaur defeated Taylor Fritz and the two players fell to a 1-2 record in Group Jimmy Connors, Musetti - also stood at 1-1 through his opening two matches - needed to beat Alcaraz to book a semifinal spot at the ATP Finals. But the home star didn't come anywhere near upsetting the Spaniard in Turin after the world No. 1 registered a 6-4 6-1 win.
"The thing that surprised me the most is the first shot after the serve with the forehand. He generates the power and speed really, really tough to handle," the Italian admitted afterward.
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Musetti: Alcaraz was really focused and aggressive on the return
Musetti actually competed pretty well early on in the match as he didn't allow Alcaraz a single break point through his opening four service games. But then, with the Spanish tennis star leading 5-4 in the first set, he saved the Italian's four game points before realizing his second set point to take the opener.
Musetti never recovered from losing the first set in such a way as Alcaraz registered two more breaks to routinely complete a two-set win.
"Yeah, I think he was really focused. I knew that he wanted to win badly tonight. He served really well. I think he didn't have so many up and downs with the serve. That gave me a lot of pressure on the rallies. I saw him playing this surface with a lot of up and downs. Now the performance of tonight was really consistent in every side of the game. Starting even from the return, he's starting to be really aggressive with the return," Musetti said.
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Musetti, 23, was playing at the ATP Finals for the first time in his career.
