Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish phenom, will fight for a spot in the Hamburg final when he faces Alex Molcan on Saturday . Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti will take on the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo.
(1) Carlos Alcaraz vs. Alex Molcan
For the first half of the tennis season, Carlos Alcaraz seemed poised on the verge of Slam success. He was in the tour’s most in-form clay court player. He won titles in Barcelona and Madrid, where he got his first match win over compatriot Rafael Nadal. But the rigors of best-of-five matches seemed to take their toll, and he was knocked out in the quarters of the French Open by Alexander Zverev. At Wimbledon, he was sent packing by the young Italian Jannik Sinner.
So back to the clay Alcaraz went. The Spaniard was a little patchy in his first round match this week against wildcard Nicola Kuhn, but he has been on point ever since with straight-set wins over Filip Krajinovic and Karen Khachanov.
Alex Molcan of Slovakia is having an excellent week. The world No. 48 has an upset win over Pablo Carreno Busta and he was up a set on Borna Coric in the quarters when the Croatian was forced to retire with an injury. Molcan has had a couple of excellent results in 2022, including a run to the finals in Lyon in the run-up to Roland Garros.
Given Alcaraz’s form in his match against Khachanov, the Spaniard should find his way into another final.
Cheryl pick: Alcaraz in 2
Lorenzo Musetti vs. Francisco Cerundolo
Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo is on a roll. On the strength of his tournament win last week in Gstaad, he sits at a career high 30 in the world. Despite the effort required to secure the title in Gstaad, he had enough left in the tank to dispatch Daniel Altmaier in the opening round this week and sail past Russians Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev to earn his spot in the semifinals.
His opponent, the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, is trying to turn the tide of a terrible run of form. Musetti lost five first round tour-level matches in a row, starting with an ouster in the opener of Roland Garros and culminating in a first round defeat in Bastad last week to Laslo Djere. He had a good run this week, though with a scrappy win over Dusan Lajovic, and straight set wins over Emil Ruusuvuori and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to earn his spot in the semifinals.
Fatigue will eventually be a factor for Cerundolo, but he should have enough left in the tank for a win over Musetti.
Cheryl pick: Cerundolo in 2
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