MONTE CARLO :Carlos Alcaraz stormed into his first Masters final in 13 months when he beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6(2) 6-4 in Monte Carlo on Saturday, but not before his Spanish compatriot saved five match points in a gruelling encounter.
Alcaraz will play Lorenzo Musetti in Sunday’s final after the Italian fought back from a set down to beat Alex de Minaur 1-6 6-4 7-6(4).
Second seed Alcaraz found it difficult to break Davidovich Fokina, succeeding only three times in 19 attempts, and he also wasted three set points in an opening set that lasted over an hour.
Davidovich Fokina was imperious in his defensive game but Alcaraz lifted his service in the second set, in which he did not face a single break point.
“It’s been a long time,” Alcaraz said after reaching his first Masters final since he won at Indian Wells last year.
“I just had to be patient and believe that this moment was going to come again. Sometimes the people are not patient, they want me to make the final in every tournament.”
The 21-year-old sealed the win with a sizzling forehand winner down the line to move into his first final in Monte Carlo.
The two shared a warm embrace at the net and a laugh before Alcaraz praised his compatriot.
“I think I played really good tennis from the beginning until the last point,” Alcaraz added.
“I tried to take the chances he gave me in the match. He saved a lot of break points and match points, but I’m really happy… The most important thing is that I’m feeling great physically.”
Musetti, who had beaten three-times champion Stefanos Tsitsiaps in the previous round, reached his first Masters 1000 final after battling De Minaur for 2-1/2 hours.
“I always struggle to start and find a rhythm but today Alex was playing really solid and the conditions were hard,” Musetti said.
“It was slow today with the rain and was not easy to break through the Alex wall. I started to be more patient and that was the key.”
Alcaraz holds a 3-1 record over Musetti, but the Italian beat him the last time they met in a claycourt final in 2022 in Hamburg.
