How Lorenzo Musetti defeated Carlos Alcaraz at the 2022 Hamburg European Open

By On The Line Tennis · Tactical & Match Analysis · Original Article ↗

I have some belated thoughts on Lorenzo Musetti winning the Hamburg European Open last Sunday...

It's almost always a pretty big deal when somebody defeats Carlos Alcaraz. When Alcaraz tied things up by winning that second set saving four match points in the process, nearly everybody and their grannies predicted a Carlitos win.

In reality however, Musetti's tennis had been on par with Alcaraz's throughout the match, perhaps even slightly more reliable.

We're here to explain why Musetti's win shouldn't be too shocking by breaking down one aspect of his tennis in particular...

Musetti's one-handed backhand return!

Trust us...

Alcaraz Kicks On Clay

The myth that Carlos Alcaraz's favourite surface is clay continues to run rife throughout the tennis-verse.

Alcaraz is a beast wherever you play him but his offensive weaponry is at its most effective on a fast, high-bouncing court. A slow court can often give his opponent another bite at the cherry when he's playing jaw-dropping yet unsustainable offence.

One way he makes up for this however is by using his favourite kick-serve out wide in the ad court. This serve bounces high and can be difficult to read on a clay-court, allowing Alcaraz to be aggressive from the first ball by very frequently getting his forehand into play. This can be the case on both first and second serves.

*From the first ad-court point, Alcaraz (bottom) delivers a kick-serve out wide plus a forehand.*

So whilst Alcaraz's groundies are't best suited to a clay-court, his kick-serve is a significant key to his success, immediately putting him on the front foot on this surface.

That's where Musetti's one-handed backhand return came in...

The Musetti One-Handed Backhand Return

Comparisons to Tsitsipas's Stats

The one-handed backhand return...

Often considered the weaker of the two return options, it can be very difficult to control a kickey serve from so high up with one measily hand supporting the racket.

If anything, Alcaraz's serve should have been more effective against Musetti's one-hander than your average two-hander. Look no further than one of the best clay-courters in the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas, to back up this theory.

In Barcelona this year, Alcaraz hit 14 first-serves and 9 second-serves to the Tsitsipas backhand in the ad-court.
Alcaraz won 10/14 first-serve points and 8/9 second-serve points.
That's 78% of service points won when directing the serve to the Tsitsipas backhand in the ad-court.

*An Alcaraz (top) classic. Tsitsipas (bottom) gets a racket on the backhand return but it's nowhere near deep enough to cause the Spaniard any trouble on the following ball.*

*Tsitsipas (bottom) tries to take the return a bit later but can't control the ball at the peak of its bounce.*

On the flip side, our fellow one-handed backhand extraordinaire Lorenzo Musetti posted entirely different numbers.

Against Musetti, Alcaraz hit 23 first-serves and 6 second-serves to the Musetti backhand in the ad-court.
Despite the much larger portion of first-serves to this wing (which were often also kicked), Alcaraz won only 15/23 first-serves and 2/6 second-serves.
That's 61% of service points won when directing the serve to the Musetti backhand in the ad-court.

Clutch Shot

Putting the general performance stats of that return aside for a second, let's take a look at just how clutch this shot came up for Musetti in some seriously important situations.

*Musetti (bottom) is off the screen here and he's still able to find the Alcaraz (top) backhand, eventually converting this break point. This kind of angle was unseen in the Tsitsipas-Barcelona match.*

*Alcaraz (top) kick serve and approach. Against Tsitsipas, this would be a sure-fire way of winning a big point. Instead Musetti (bottom) greets Alcaraz with a clean backhand pass.*

A stellar performance on this wing throughout and some clutchery when it mattered. How did Musetti fare so much better than Tsitsipas in this department?

Comparisons to Tsitsipas's Technique

The disparity between Musetti's performance on return on a clay-court compared to a hard-court is startling... especially on first-serve return.

Musetti hard-court return points won in 2022: 34.0% (43rd in the top-50)
- 1st: 27.6% (36th)
- 2nd: 45.7% (42nd)
Musetti clay-court return points won in 2022: 42.2% (10th in the top-50)
- 1st: 36.8% (7th)
- 2nd: 51.9% (18th)

This is because Musetti is a masterful returner when he's afforded time.

Tsitsipas mucked about with his return stance as he looked to get comfortable finding some way of getting the kick-serve back into play. But from a deep return position, he couldn't consistently find a means of stopping Alcaraz attacking from the first ball.

Meanwhile, Musetti stayed deep in the court as he loaded each and everyone of his returns with massive topspin. The amount of topspin he can generate gives him the ability to hit either a deep, loopy, unattackable ball or a sharp angle cross-court1.

One of my favourite examples of Musetti's (bottom) backhand return being effective. This ball goes straight back to Alcaraz's (top) forehand but it's so heavy and well-placed that it results in an unforced error.

Though Tsitsipas generally hits with more topspin on his backhand, I wouldn't be surprised if Musetti hit the heavier of the two returns on average - his ability to fully close his body before striking is far more explosive than Tsitsipas's.

Look at the coil of Musetti's body here. Also pay close attention to the use of his left hand to bring the racket right back. This creates masses of topspin allowing him to clear the net by literally about a metre and a half here - it's such a heavy ball that Alcaraz struggles to time it.

You'll also notice if you look back at the Tsitsipas GIFs that his return swing is generally abbreviated - fine if you're in a neutral or offensive position but on defence this can leave Tsitsipas's balls lacking in height, making it harder to hit with depth and avoid a subsequent attack.

Musetti on the other hand finishes his return swing all the way over his shoulder.

*The swing that generated that fantastic pass in the final game of the match.*

Being able to come up the back of the ball with this full swing gives Musetti more loopiness to his shots which is effective on clay - his slightly smaller stature may also be a reason for this advantage.

His backhand return on clay rarely ever looks like the bunt that often leaves Tsitsipas exposed against Alcaraz.

How Lorenzo Musetti defeated Carlos Alcaraz at the 2022 Hamburg European Open

Granted it was only one factor.

There were plenty of approaches, drop shots, drama, glittering forehands etc. that eventually led us to a Musetti win... but oh boy was it an important factor.

Tsitsipas was the best comparison I had to make but so many players have struggled to neutralise the Alcaraz kick-serve over the past year or so. And against one-handers especially - Alcaraz was 7-0 before this match with Musetti.

The coil of the Italian youngster's body and his full loopy swing allow him to return from deeper in the court. Against Carlitos, this was an absolute game-changer.

Though it's still likely a shot that will be rushed on other surfaces, for now Musetti can take solace in the fact it could rocket him to success on the terre de battue.

FORZA! 🇮🇹

1

On a hard-court, a deep return position is less effective as the serve is on him so much quicker, giving him less time to load up. The lack of unpredictable clay-bounce also doesn't give him as much of an advantage hitting deep loopy balls.