By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) -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 semi-finals for the first time on Tuesday.
Despite a few muddled moments, the world number seven set up a meeting with either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or Tommy Paul of the U.S. 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 semi-finals of every main claycourt 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.”
Earlier, and in front of mostly empty seats around lunchtime four-time champion Iga Swiatek, looking to become the first woman in the professional era to win the title four times in a row, beat Elina Svitolina 6-1 7-5 to set up a clash with world number one Aryna Sabalenka for a place in Saturday’s final.
The Belarusian ended Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen’s 10-match winning streak at Roland Garros with a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory to advance.
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.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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