Laura Robson admits what she wished to see as Carlos Alcaraz saw off Lorenzo Musetti

Robson was full of praise for Alcaraz when speaking to Sky Sports, though she admitted she would have liked to see a bit more resistance from Musetti. It was not so much about the result as it was about giving the home crowd something to get behind.

She explained: “I almost wish it were closer.

“Yeah, I just felt like the crowd was so fun and so enjoyable, and was so willing to sink their teeth and just something, anything that Musetti could give them. It would have been nice, especially early doors, and in the second, if he just held on physically, you did feel like it was the legs at the end that just got to him, and he had nothing left to give.

“And that’s when we saw him start to go to the drop shot, start to go, just poor shot selection, which you totally understand.”

Despite the one-sided nature of things on court, she still found plenty of positives in terms of what it meant for those in attendance: “But yeah, in some ways I wanted another hour of it because the atmosphere was electric in here and then noise foot stamping everything about it. It’s exactly what you love about live sport.”

Strengthening the Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner rivalry

After another season where Alcaraz and Sinner stood head and shoulders above the rest, this intense finish to the year felt like the right way to close out 2025.

The two have split the last eight Grand Slam titles evenly, four each, and have faced off in the last three finals as well.

Even though they get on well off-court, their matchups have produced some memorable moments that have energised men’s tennis in recent times.

While there’s hope that a new face will soon step up to challenge their dominance, fans are not tired of seeing them square off just yet.

The race for year-end number one added another chapter to what has become a defining rivalry of this era, with talk already turning to a possible showdown in the ATP Finals decider.