Musetti Tops Tiafoe, Reaches First Roland-Garros Semifinal

Lorenzo Musetti
Lorenzo Musetti (photo: Jürgen Hasenkopf)

PARIS/WASHINGTON, June 3, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

As the quarterfinal round began at Roland-Garros on Tuesday, Lorenzo Musetti‘s red-clay run of good form – and fortune – continued to garner attention. The World No. 7 from Italy improved to 27-5 on clay since July 2025, highlighted by his earning a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, as he showed all the right stuff in beating No. 15 seed Frances Tiafoe of the United States to advance to his first French Open semifinal.

While the 23-year-old Musetti has been used to dealing with tough draws in Paris, in previous years losing to the No. 1-ranked player in three of his four appearances, his 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over the American No. 4 Tiafoe in two hours and 47 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier to reach the last four means he’s become the fifth Italian man to contest multiple major semifinals in the Open Era. He joins Jannik Sinner (5), Adriano Panatta (3), Matteo Berrettini (30 and Corrado Barazzutti (2).

Musetti celebrated his victory over Tiafoe by rolling up the right sleeve of his green shirt and flexed his biceps.

“[The third set] was definitely decisive,” Musetti said during his on-court interview. “Frances didn’t start as he wanted; I think but today was really complicated to play well. It was so windy and really difficult to manage the balls properly. Especially the third set was really a fight and it was not easy to make a break.

“Even if I was a little bit tired and it was really tough for me to stay there, I found the extra energy to win the [third] set, and the last set was definitely my best set of the match.”

Musetti struck 45 winners – including eight aces – made 32 unforced errors, compared to 33 winners and 51 unforced errors by Tiafoe. He converted five of 11 break points and outpointed his opponent 123-98.

As for Tiafoe, who did not drop a set en route to the fifth Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career, losing to Musetti kept him from recording his first Top-10 win on clay – and from guaranteeing a return to the Top 10 next week.

After taking care of business against Tiafoe by winning eight of the final 10 games of the quarterfinal match, Musetti shows no signs of slowing down. He’s 19-3 on clay this season – up to No. 5 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, a new career-high ranking – and he’s joined a select group of players that includes Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev who have reached the semifinals of all three clay-court ATP Masters 1000 events and Roland-Garros in the same season. Nadal achieved the feat five times while the others have all done it once.

When Musetti was told during his on-court interview by interviewer Alizé Cornet that he has an elegant game, Musetti quipped: “I mean, we are Italian. We are elegant.”

In Friday’s semifinal round, Musetti will take on defending champion and second seed Carlos Alcaraz. In Tuesday’s night session on Court Philippe-Chatrier, the World No. 2 from Spain dropped just four games and produced arguably his best performance of the Parisian fortnight in his 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory over 12th seed Tommy Paul of the United States.

The 22-year-old Spaniard needed just one hour and 34 minutes to secure his berth in the last four for the third straight year.

“I could close my eyes and everything went in,” Alcaraz said during his on-court interview. “My feeling today was unbelievable. I was trying to hit every shot at 100 percent, not thinking about anything else, but just hitting. Today was one of those matches when everything just went in.”

Alcaraz struck his 40th winner of the quarterfinal, a demonstrative third-shot forehand, to secure his 35th victory of the season – and 20th on clay. He’s now 11-3 versus Top-20 players in 2025 and improved to 5-2 against Paul. Alcaraz won 88 percent (38 of 43) of his first serve points, faced no break points while converting six of 17 chances, and outpointed Paul 91-51. The 28-year-old American No. 2 countered with 13 winners but made 26 unforced errors.

“We are in the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam at Roland-Garros and this kind of match is never easy,” Alcaraz admitted. “I have played against Tommy many times and each match was very difficult. He beat me two times. That helped me at the start of the match to just focus on my tennis. Trying not to go down or let him in the match. I tried to be focused the whole match.”

Sabalenka, Swiatek win big to set semifinal showdown

World No. 1 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka advanced to her 11th major semifinal – most of any player since Maria Sharapova at Roland-Garros in 2011 – and her second last four in Paris following her Roland-Garros run two years ago after defeating No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen of China, 7-6 (3), 6-3, Tuesday afternoon.

During the one-hour, 57-minute tussle on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Sabalenka came from 4-2 down in the opening set to win it in a tiebreaker. Then, she maintained the upper hand in the second set by breaking Zheng’s serve three times in four opportunities. Overall, Sabalenka hit 20 winners to 18 unforced errors, converted four of six break points and outpointed Zheng 75-64 in collecting her first Top-10 win at the French Open. Although Zheng hit 22 winners, she also made 31 unforced errors.

The loss snapped the Olympic gold medalist Zheng’s 10-match winning streak at Stade Roland-Garros going back to last summer’s Paris Games.

“I think my game plan went quite well, but it’s just, I get tight,” Zheng said during her post-match news conference. “Then I give so many easy mistakes after when I’m leading in the first set. … It’s just I’m not able today to stick to it, my game plan, from the beginning until the end, because I just think sometimes, I give her so many easy unforced errors.”

After Sabalenka won their first six meetings, losing just one set, Zheng garnered her first lifetime win against the Belarusian last month in Rome, 6-4 6-3. However, Sabalenka got her revenge for the loss in the Eternal City.

“I have to say that last tournament I was pretty exhausted and honestly at the end of the match, I was actually glad I lost that match,” Sabalenka said during her on-court interview. “I needed a break before Roland-Garros and today I was just more fresh and I was ready to battle, I was ready to fight, I was ready to leave everything I have on court to get this win.”

Meanwhile, three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek continued her quest to become the first woman to win four consecutive Roland Garros titles in the Open Era. The No. 5 seed from Poland, who turned 24 earlier this Paris fortnight, gave a dominant performance – filled with plenty of intensity – and defeated No. 13 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, 6-1, 7-5, in one hour and 41 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier to advance to her fourth straight Roland-Garros semifinal.

Against the four-time quarterfinalist Svitolina, Swiatek won 74 percent of her first-serve points, hit 23 winners, converted four of eight break points and saved three of four break points she faced. Swiatek outpointed Svitolina 72-59 to earn her fourth win in five matches against the Ukrainian No. 1. She closed out the quarterfinal triumph with three aces in the closing game.

“You could see that my serve was kind of weird, but that was also because of the wind,” Swiatek said in her post-match comments. “I think we both wanted to figure out how to work around that, but at the end of the first set I felt the wind went down a little bit so I knew I could go for it.

“I just went all in at the end. I think I served three lines. I’m pretty proud of that because it doesn’t happen often. It’s nice to win some points for free, for sure.”

The victory was the 26th straight at Roland-Garros for Swiatek, following her three-peat of French Open titles won from 2022-24. Her 26-match winning streak at the Paris major equals the longest winning run in a women’s singles Grand Slam this century, first set by Serena Williams, who posted 26 victories at the US Open from 2012-15. She’s currently tied with Monica Seles and Justine Henin for most consecutive French Open titles won with three. Swiatek has won the clay-court major in four of the last five years.

As Swiatek readies to face Sabalenka in the semifinals round, she’s the fifth player in the Open Era to win 25-plus consecutive singles matches at Roland-Garros, joining Rafael Nadal, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg and Seles. She leads the overall head-to-head against Sabalenka 8-4 and the clay-court head-to-had 5-1. This will be their first meeting at the French Open.

“It’s always a challenge against Aryna,” Swiatek said. “She really has a game for every surface, so I just need to focus on myself, do the work, be brave in my shots and just go for it.

“I’m going to prepare tactically tomorrow for sure. She has been having a great season. So, I’m not going to lie, it is going to be a tough match. But I’m happy for the challenge.”

Around Stade Roland-Garros

• In women’s doubles, reigning Olympic gold medalists and No. 2 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced to the semifinals after defeating No. 6 seeds Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium, 6-2, 6-3 in 68 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Next, they will face No. 4 seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider of Russia, who defeated unseeded Olga Danilovic of Serbia and Anastasia Potapova of Russia, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 23 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

• In men’s doubles, a day after top seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia were upset by No. 16 seeds Hugo Nys of Monaco and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France in the third round, the No. 2-seeded team of Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten of Great Britain went down to No. 9 seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King of the United States, 6-3, 6-4, in 58 minutes on Court Simonne-Mathieu to advance to the semifinals. The Americans will face No. 8 seeds Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski of Great Britain, who fought past No. 15 seeds Matthew Ebden and John Peers or Australia, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4.

• In mixed doubles, No. 4 seeds Taylor Townsend and Evan King of the United States advanced to the semifinal round with their 6-3, 6-4 win over Laura Siegemund of Germany and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France in 69 minutes of Court Simonne-Mathieu. Also, Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Neal Skupski of Great Britain upset No. 1 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Mate Pavic of Croatia, 6-3, 6-4, in 70 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

Tuesday’s Roland-Garros results

Wednesday’s Roland-Garros order of play

By the numbers

• Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe are the first American men’s quarterfinalists at Roland-Garros since Andre Agassi in 2003. Agassi is also the most recent American semifinalist, last reaching the stage en route to his 1999 title win.

• Iga Swiatek (40-2 lifetime at the French Open) is the second-fastest player to earn 40 singles main-draw wins at Roland-Garros in the Open Era, equaling Bjorn Borg. Only Rafael Nadal did it in less matches (41).

“Quotable …”

“It was a tough match. I didn’t play a good match, but I also didn’t play a bad match. I thought he played incredibly well. He didn’t allow me to play my tennis, I don’t think.

“I don’t think I’ve reached my best level this week. Then today just a couple of dips here and there, and he took advantage,” the 23-year-old continued. “Usually when you play someone like Alexander, he’s quite up and down with his level, but he was completely locked in. He’s obviously been that way this week, and that’s why he’s beaten de Minaur and top players.

“Yeah, it hurts a lot, but I just move on.”

– World No. 5 Jack Draper of Great Britain, during his post-match news conference Monday, after being upset by Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinal round.

 

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