John McEnroe says Carlos Alcaraz is doing something he's never seen before as he reaches French Open final

Carlos Alcaraz was looking to reach his second consecutive Roland Garros final with a win over Lorenzo Musetti.

In 2024, Alcaraz won his maiden French Open title, taking down Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the final, 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Returning a year later, Alcaraz got off to a strong start, beating Giulio Zeppieri 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, before battling through in four sets against Fabian Marozsan, Damir Dzumhur, and Ben Shelton.

The Spaniard then produced his most dominant performance of the tournament in the quarterfinals when Alcaraz defeated Tommy Paul 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Moving on to the semi-finals, Alcaraz came face to face with Italy’s Musetti, whom he had already beaten twice on clay in 2025.

Securing win number three, the 22-year-old booked his place in Sunday’s final, where he’ll take on either Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic.

Reacting to Alcaraz’s semi-final win, John McEnroe claimed the world number two is doing something he’s never seen before.

John McEnroe says he’s never seen a player smile as much as ‘complete’ Carlos Alcaraz

Speaking to TNT Sports after Alcaraz’s 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, 2-0 (RET) win over Musetti, McEnroe shared what he does, which is unlike anyone else.

“Of all the players I have ever watched and that includes Novak [Djokovic], Rafa [Nadal], Roger [Federer], Rod Laver is my idol, it’s hard to put anyone above him, but those are the three greatest player who ever lived and [Pete] Sampras would be the next after Laver,” he said.

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“I have never seen a player as complete that can do everything at his age with a smile on his face most of the time.”

The seven-time Major winner went on to describe what Alcaraz does that can work against him at times.

“It is really remarkable that he has so many options,” said McEnroe.

“I think sometimes that’s when he gets in trouble. He can hit his way out of trouble, but he can hit himself into trouble.

“A little bit of that was going on early in the match, where he sort of righted the ship in the tiebreaker. He played a great tiebreaker, and then his energy level went up, and Musetti’s clearly dropped down.”

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McEnroe then looked back on the latter stages of the match, where Musetti retired due to injury.

“I don’t know if it was because of the injury but he just all of a sudden steam rolled him and he looked like the guy who is going to be mighty tough to beat,” he said.

Alcaraz’s win was his fifth in a row against the Italian as he took further control of their head-to-head.

Match Winner Loser Score 2025 Italian Open – SF Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters – F Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 2024 Miami Open – 4R Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-3 2023 Beijing – 2R Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-2 2023 French Open – 4R Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 2022 Hamburg Open – F Lorenzo Musetti Carlos Alcaraz 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti’s head-to-head record

He’ll now look ahead to competing in his fifth Grand Slam final, and his first of 2025.

Carlos Alcaraz’s record in Grand Slam finals

Alcaraz has competed in four Major finals throughout his career, emerging victorious on all four occasions.

His most recent Grand Slam victory came at last year’s Wimbledon tournament when Alcaraz beat Djokovic in straight sets.

With such a strong record in the biggest matches, Alcaraz will surely take to Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday full of confidence.

He’s been almost untouchable on clay all year, losing just the one match (hampered with injury) to Holger Rune in Barcelona.

Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images

A record of 21-1 on clay tells you all you need to know about Alcaraz’s level on the surface this year, a statistic Djokovic and Sinner would be wise not to ponder on for too long ahead of the final.

Only time will tell if Alcaraz can secure his 22nd clay win of the season when he competes for the French Open title on Sunday, June 8.

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