Carlos Alcaraz won from behind against Arthur Philz while defender champion Stefanos Tittipas bouncing off the Monte Carlo Masters Quarterfinals on Friday.
World No. 3 Alcaraz was 5 points from a loss in the second set and 3-1 down in the decisive set, but 2 hours and 2 hours later they drew 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Phil played in his third straight master quarterfinal, losing Alcaraz thanks to a forced error of 53.
“We missed the clay,” Alcaraz said.
Alcaraz, preparing for the French open title defense, was caught up in his first Monte Carlo semi-final. This was an all-out incident with 2022 runner-up Alejandro Davidevich Fokina, beating Alexei Popilin 6-3, 6-2. They haven’t seen them on the tour in two years.
Phil got off to a fierce start against Alcaraz, surgening to a 3-0 lead with two early breaks. Alcaraz fought back to get back one break and had four chances to level up in the fourth game, but the Fils held firm. The Spaniards eventually pulled out the level 4-4. I ended the set after saving two more breakpoints before the fill broke once more and moved forward 5-4.
However, the Fils wasted seven breakpoints in the second set, and Alcaraz leveled the match with a great lob and stole a serve from Fils in the 12th game.
Alcaraz remained inconsistent and again dropped serve in the third game of the decider. However, he eventually broke and got another break in the eighth game. Phils’ frustration was when he defeated the racket with clay, unable to regain his composure in the final game, allowing Alcaraz to finish the victory on a daily basis.
“I believe that a true champion will find the right level when needed. Of course I hope to be able to play my best tennis from the first point to the very end,” Alcaraz said. “But we played almost two hours, 30 minutes, which is the most difficult thing in tennis. We maintain our highest level over such a long period of time. So it’s good to go back to the best shots if necessary.
Tsitsipas couldn’t understand where everything went wrong for Lorenzo Musetti. The 2021, 2022 and 2024 Monte Carlo champions had a perfect 5-0 record against Musetti, winning their first set 6-1 on Friday.
But from that point on, the serves on Tsitsipas had evaporated. He made less than half of his first serve. Only eight out of the 28 in the final set. One of his seven double faults lowered him to 4-3 in the final set. Musetti won the final two sets 6-3, 6-4.
“It’s hard to accept,” Tsitsipas said. “I mean, playing on this court and feeling confident that I couldn’t win a game, so I felt there were all kinds of reasons… it’s definitely heartbreaking.”
Musetti wept when he won.
He faces Alex de Minaurus. Alex de Minaur reached his first semi-finals with Clay three years after he drove Grigor Dimitrov 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 44 minutes, 6-0. Dimitrov made a phenomenal 23 unforced errors.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.