Carlos Alcaraz continued his French Open title defence with a display of breathtaking brutality for a 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory over American 12th seed Tommy Paul and a spot in the Roland Garros semi-finals on Tuesday.
The second seed has searched in vain for his usual sublime form on Parisian clay this year, needing four sets in his last three matches to dismiss determined opponents, but he had no trouble on a balmy evening on Court Philippe Chatrier.
"It was like I could close my eyes and everything went in," Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.
"My feeling was unbelievable, I tried to hit my shots at 100% ... today was just one of those matches where everything went in.
"We were in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros and these matches aren't easy. I've lost to him twice and against Tommy, matches are very difficult. That helped me focus on my tennis and try not to go down or let him get into the match."
Alcaraz motored through the opening set without dropping a game and grabbed his fourth break early in the second set after sparing Paul the ignominy of another bagel and the 22-year-old pulled further away to double his lead in only 53 minutes.
He glided across the red clay while delivering punishing shots, knocking the racket out of Paul's hands at one point with a thunderous effort, before finally facing some resistance in the third set.
Former junior French Open champion Paul stayed level with Alcaraz until 4-4 but soon faded away and the holder closed out the victory to book a clash with Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals.
Italian craftsman Lorenzo Musetti used his full palette of shots to decorate Court Philippe Chatrier with blistering baseline winners, beating American Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the French Open semifinals for the first time on Tuesday.
Despite a few muddled moments, the World No. 7 set up a meeting with either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or Tommy Paul of the US as he continues his renaissance after some soul searching.
Musetti, who said he put some order in his mind and game, did not let frustration take the best of him after losing the second set and once he found his groove, there was no stopping him as 15th seed Tiafoe gradually lost the plot, twice arguing with the chair umpire over line calls.
He bowed out with yet another routine shot into the net, his 'Big Foe' neck chain dripping with sweat as a testimony of the battle just fought.
"Definitely Frances did not start the way he wanted but today was really complicated, it was so windy and difficult to mange to properly hit the ball," said Musetti, the only man to reach at least the semifinals of every main clay-court event this season.
"The third set was a fight and even if I was a little tired I found the extra energy to win this set and the last set was probably the best set of this match."
Musetti is one of the rare top players using the single-handed backhand, a vintage shot often praised by tennis connoisseurs.
"We are Italian, we are elegant," he joked.
"Joke aside, I have a little bit of a retro style."
With the main arena finally almost full, Musetti got off to a strong start, his heavy top spin proving tough to handle for Tiafoe, who dropped serve in the second game.
The Italian, however, was not completely flawless and he faced a break point at 4-2, which he saw off thanks to his mesmerizing backhand.
He sealed the opening set on his opponent's serve when Tiafoe's volley sailed wide.
Musetti's game, however, needed some fine-tuning and Tiafoe jumped on the occasion to bank on errors here and there to snatch an early break in the second set.
He held serve throughout to level the contest as Musetti seemed to struggle adjusting to the windy conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Musetti dug deep in the third and played a near-perfect game on Tiafoe's serve to surge 2-1 ahead.
A modest second serve met Musetti's powerful crosscourt return and after trading heavy topspin shots, Tiafoe attempted a crafty drop shot, but the Italian charged forward for a clinical backhand winner on the baseline.
The fourth set looked more like a post-match cool-down for Musetti, who would not be distracted by Tiafoe's antics.
© 2025