Alcaraz Rallies To Win First Monte-Carlo Masters Title

Carlos Alcaraz, Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters
Carlos Alcaraz (photo: ATP Tour video)

MONTE-CARLO/WASHINGTON, April 13, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

Carlos Alcaraz fought back from a set down three times during this year’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters tournament in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. On Sunday afternoon, the third time he did it was a charm – and it earned the second-seeded Alcaraz his first title in the Principality.

The World No. 3 from Spain showed great composure and rallied past World No. 16 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, in an hour and 47 minutes before a capacity crowd of 10,200 fans on Court Rainier III to win his first Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title. It was his sixth ATP Masters 1000 crown and 18th ATP Tour title overall. The World No. 16 Musetti, the third Italian to play in the Monte-Carlo final at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, was denied in his pursuit of winning a first ATP Masters 1000 title, physically hampered by the end.

”It is not the way I would have wanted to win a match,” the 21-year-old Alcaraz said, during a brief on-court interview with ATP Media before the trophy ceremony. “Thinking about Lorenzo, he has been through a tough week, played long matches. I feel sorry for him. It is one of his best results, ending up like this is not easy. Hopefully it is nothing serious and he will be 100 percent soon.”

In the second ATP Masters 1000 final contested between players born in the 2000s after Indian Wells last month, when Jack Draper, 23, beat Holger Rune, 21, Sunday was the youngest final at Monte-Carlo since Rafael Nadal, 22, defeated Novak Djokovic, 21, in 2009.

Alcaraz, who was playing in his third consecutive clay-court final after Roland-Garros and the Paris Olympics last year, won his first ATP Masters 1000 title since capturing Indian Wells in 2024. By winning Monte-Carlo, Alcaraz tied Daniil Medvedev for 10th-most ATP Masters 1000 titles in series history. It was his third ATP Masters 1000 conquest on clay courts after winning the Mutua Madrid Open twice, in 2022 and 2023.

En route to the Monte-Carlo title, Alcaraz defeated Francisco Cerundolo, Daniel Altmaier, Arthur Fils, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Musetti. Like the title match, the wins over Cerundolo and Fils also went the distance.

“I am really happy to win Monte-Carlo for the first time. It has been a really difficult week with a lot of difficult situations,” said Alcaraz, who bowed in his opening match at the Miami Open. “I am proud with how I dealt with everything. It has been a difficult month for me, so coming here and seeing the hard work pay off makes me happy.”

Meanwhile, Musetti, 23, who had built his impressive clay-court C.V. by winning the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics last summer, defeating Djokovic at Monte-Carlo in 2023 and winning the ATP 500 title at Hamburg in 2022, will move to World No. 11, a career-high ranking. His week included back-to-back Top-10 wins over No. 8 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 10 Alex de Minaur.

“At the beginning of the week, I was of course dreaming to be in final and to have the chance to play for the Top 10, for the title, for a lot of things,” Musetti said, prior to the title match.

Competing in his first ATP Masters 1000 final, played under cloudy conditions, Musetti raced to a 4-1 lead in the opening set after breaking Alcaraz twice, in the second and fourth games. It broke a trend in which Musetti hadn’t won more than three games in a set against Alcaraz in their last three meetings.

Certainly, the Italian No. 2 didn’t let any fatigue from arduously grinding out five earlier wins this week show, and he won the 41-minute first set 6-3 with an audacious forehand drop-shot winner at the net that stunned Alcaraz.

Next, the Spaniard raised his level and bounced back in the second set, breaking Musetti in consecutive service games, to jump out to a dominating 5-0 lead. Alcaraz went on to level the final by winning the 38-minute set 6-1, but not before needing four set points to put away Musetti during a 16-point seventh game. It was the fourth time this week that Musetti had lost a 6-1 set.

While Alcaraz overall looked better at Monte-Carlo than he has during the rest of the 2025 season, he wasn’t flawless by any means. There were stretches where he was erratic, such as in the first set. However, what saved him – certainly against Fils in Friday’s quarterfinal and, again, against Musetti in the final – was his ability to rise to the occasion and raise his game at key moments.

As the third set unfolded, Musetti immediately faced break points in his first service game, and he saved one of them with his third ace and the second with a lucky net cord that refused to budge when Alcaraz tried to surprise him with a clever drop shot. However, Alcaraz broke for a 1-0 lead when Musetti hit a stray forehand wide that killed a nine-shot rally. He consolidated the break with a fifth-shot forehand winner that Musetti wasn’t able to chase down as he began to show signs of a possible right thigh injury. Alcaraz broke Musetti, again, to take a 3-0 lead – and Musetti immediately began to receive treatment on his right thigh.

Then, the Spaniard consolidated the second break with an easy love hold for a 4-0 advantage. There was little Musetti could do – and retiring was not an option.

Instead, Alcaraz increased his lead to 5-0 with another break of Musetti as the Italian showed very little mobility. While there would be no disgrace in losing the title to Alcaraz, going down with a final-set bagel, his injury left him with nothing left to give. Alcaraz closed out the victory with a forehand winner. After he won the 28-minute final set at love, Alcaraz smiled and raised his arms in victory. Then, he shared his empathy and compassion by warmly embracing Musetti at the net.

“Disappointed I couldn’t finish the match in the best way for the crowd and for all the support I’ve received this week,” Musetti said during the trophy ceremony. Then, in congratulating Alcaraz and his team, he offered: “You know the way better than us. We look up to you guys, your dedication, your work. Really appreciate to be sharing some opportunities like today.”

It was a brutal end to a phenomenal week for Musetti, who lost to the Spaniard for the fourth time in five meetings. As for Alcaraz, who came to this year’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters event without a victory to his name in the Principality, he won the grand prize. Alcaraz signed the camera lens “Monte-Carlo I love you!” He also praised his team in accepting his trophy: “We’ve been always together, really strong together. Going the right path and doing great things. Just to come here to Monte-Carlo and just to play good tennis. I want to say thank you for everything. You made me stay here and win this tournament.”

It all seemed very appropriate and very heartfelt.

Wild cards Arneodo and Guinard win doubles title

Wild cards Romain Arneodo of Monaco and Manuel Guinard of France upset No. 7 seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain, rallying from a set down to win 6-1, 6-7 (8), 10-8, Sunday evening. The victory, completed in a hour and 25 minutes on Court Rainier III at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, lifted them to their first ATP Tour doubles title together.

The Monegasque/French pair are 6-1 as a pair after making their debut in 2021 at a Challenger Tour event in St. Tropez. They made their ATP Tour debut last week in Marrakech last week and reached the semifinals. This week, en route to the title, they defeated No. 5 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina in the first round, No. 2 seeds Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten of Great Britain in the semifinals on Saturday.

Arneodo is the first player from Monaco to win a singles or doubles title at Monte-Carlo and just the second Monegasque Masters 1000 champion after Hugo Nys won the Rome title in 2023 with Poland’s Jan Zielinski.

By the numbers

Novak Djokovic has won the most ATP Masters 1000 singles title since the series was introduced in 1990 with 40. By winning Sunday’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Carlos Alcaraz has tied Daniil Medvedev for 10th place with six.

“Quotable …”

“I started my career really early, which that means I have already lived a lot of situations, which I learned about playing finals of Masters 1000, Grand Slams. I lost some of the tough matches that made me learn about how to deal with that, with some situations.

“Yeah, I say I’m super young, I’m still super young, but I feel like I have to keep going to live the experience to learn about that, but I feel like I know how to deal with that with some situations that probably other players don’t have that feeling.

“Having tournaments like this one, Monte-Carlo, it’s my second time that I play here … still growing up as a player, as a person, living new experiences.

“I think every match is new, is different, and we have to learn, you know, from the matches that I’m playing. So I think this tournament is really important just to keep going and to get confident for the clay season.”

– Carlos Alcaraz, during one of his post-match news conferences this week in Monte-Carlo, on maturing as a player and a person.

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