Carlos Alcaraz has enjoyed a strong start to his clay-court season, reaching two finals in two tournaments.
The world number three kicked off his clay-court campaign with a big win in the principality, as Alcaraz lifted the Monte-Carlo Masters trophy earlier this month.
Alcaraz then reached the Barcelona Open final, falling to defeat against Denmark’s Holger Rune, 6-7, 2-6.
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The Spaniard will no doubt hope to reach a third final on clay at the upcoming Madrid Open, a tournament he’s won twice before.
He could come up against some very motivated opposition, however, as one ATP Tour star announces he is out for ‘revenge’ in the Spanish capital.
Lorenzo Musetti says he wants ‘revenge’ on Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid after losing in Monte-Carlo
Ahead of this year’s Madrid Open, Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti shared his thoughts on Alcaraz, having lost to him at the Monte-Carlo Masters recently.
“It’s very difficult to play [Carlos Alcaraz], of course, in the final at Monte-Carlo, I lost to him,” he said.
“I have to take revenge on him, and we hope that this tournament or the next one could be a good tournament.
“I also said it in the on-court interview that it is one of the objectives for the season.”
Musetti led Alcaraz by a set-to-love in the Monte-Carlo final, before eventually losing in three, 6-3, 1-6, 0-6.
The result saw Alcaraz extend his head-to-head lead over Musetti to 4-1, and he has now won four straight matches against the world number 11.
Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti’s head-to-head record
Alcaraz and Musetti have been placed in the same half of the Madrid Open draw, and could potentially face off for a sixth time in the quarterfinals.
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Both players will be wary of getting too far ahead of themselves, however, as they could come up against several dangerous seeds on their way to the last eight.
Seeds in Lorenzo Musetti’s section of the draw
- [6] Alex de Minaur
- [17] Stefanos Tsitsipas
- [29] Denis Shapovalov
Seeds in Carlos Alcaraz’s section of the draw
- [15] Grigor Dimitrov
- [19] Tomas Machac
- [26] Jiri Lehecka
Lorenzo Musetti could make his top-ten debut after the 2025 Madrid Open
Following his run to the final in Monte-Carlo, Musetti rose to a career-high ranking of 11th in the world.
However, with Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev, two players ranked above Musetti, set to defend significant points in Madrid, the Italian currently sits in ninth place in the ‘Live ATP rankings’.
Top ten in the ‘Live ATP rankings’
Those rankings are, of course, provisional, and strong performances from either Russian player in Madrid could see them hold on to their place in the top ten.
The Italian has struggled at the Madrid Open in recent years, and has only won two matches during his three previous visits to the tournament.
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- 2024 Madrid Open 2R – Lorenzo Musetti lost to Thiago Seyboth Wild, 4-6, 4-6
- 2023 Madrid Open 2R – Lorenzo Musetti lost to Yannick Hanfmann, 4-6, 6-7
- 2022 Madrid Open 3R – Lorenzo Musetti lost to Alexander Zverev, 3-6, 0-1 (RET)
- 2022 Madrid Open 2R – Lorenzo Musetti beat Sebastian Korda, 6-4, 6-3
- 2022 Madrid Open 1R – Lorenzo Musetti beat Ilya Ivashka, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5
Musetti would no doubt love to snap his three-match losing streak at the Madrid Open when he takes to the court for his second-round match later this week.
The Italian number two will begin his Madrid Open campaign against either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Hamad Medjedovic on Saturday, April 26.