Lorenzo Musetti has cemented his status as one of the game’s most dangerous players after his latest run to a Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros.
The Italian star beat Frances Tiafoe in four sets on Tuesday to reach the last four, less than 12 months after progressing to his first major semifinal at Wimbledon.
But it’s on clay where Musetti’s all-court game has proved most potent. In 2025 he has reached the semifinal stage at the four biggest claycourt tournaments – Masters events in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome, then in Paris on the Grand Slam stage.
Now inside the top five in the ATP live rankings, he’ll target a place in his first Slam final against Carlos Alcaraz, the player who stopped him in the Monte Carlo final and Rome semifinals.
Musetti had long been tipped to achieve big things, ever since he was a world No.1 junior who won the Australian Open 2019 boys’ singles title.
But success is coming far more consistently now that he has turned 23, something he attributes to several factors.
“I guess it’s kind of a process of growing. Not just inside the court, but especially off the court,” he told Alize Cornet during his on-court interview at Court Philippe Chatrier. “Last year I became a father… and I think that gave me an extra responsibility.
“I think now I approach things in a more professional way. Not just on the court, on the match, but in the daily routine; that’s really important for me to be in order, also when I practice.
“Especially in my free time, I enjoy so much my time with my family – even if they are not here, they are always with me inside my heart. So I think this win is for them.”
Musetti and girlfriend Veronica Confalonieri are expecting a second child in late November and it’s clear this happy period he is experiencing is translating to his game.
Since the formation of the ATP Tour in 1990, Musetti is only the sixth player to reach the semifinal stage at all three claycourt Masters tournaments, plus Roland Garros, in one season. Four of the other five on the list are Grand Slam champions and three of them – Sergei Bruguera, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – have reigned in Paris.
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Amid challengingly-swirly conditions against Tiafoe, who was also contesting his first Roland Garros quarterfinal, Musetti finished with 45 winners against 32 unforced errors. He served better, was more damaging on return, and frequently passed the net-rushing American.
The 6-2 4-6 7-5 6-2 win boosts Musetti’s 2025 European claycourt win-loss record to 18-3 and sets up a seventh tour-level meeting with Alcaraz – and fifth on clay.
Alcaraz, the defending champion, has won three of those four previous claycourt matches but Musetti did defeat the Spaniard in the 2022 Hamburg final.
Three years on, he considers himself an evolved player.
“I think I’m more clear what I have to do, and that’s really a step forward that I made,” he told Tennis Channel.
“I know myself better on court; not just in terms of strategy and technique, but also on the mental side, on how I have to behave in certain situations. So all these kind of things, they gave me an extra motivation also to do better each day.
“I don’t feel the weight of [being a contender at Roland Garros], but I stay with the ambition to go for the title, because I know that I can play with the top [players] and I will try to beat them.
“Two times I lost with Carlos [this season]… so definitely I’ll try to even improve also on what was not working in those matches.”