Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz battled back against American Frances Tiafoe to win in five sets and reach the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Alcaraz came close to relinquishing his crown against inspired Tiafoe but lived to fight another day with a 5-7 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 victory on Centre Court.
“Obviously it was a big challenge against Frances, he’s really tough to face and we saw it once again,” said Alcaraz.
“It was really difficult for me to adapt my game, find solutions and put him in trouble.
“I suffered a lot of difficult moments in the fourth set, and I was thinking, ‘fight one more ball’. In the tie-break I told myself that I have to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it.”
Tiafoe’s performance was remarkable given he was wearing a knee support to protect the nasty injury he suffered slipping over at Queen’s which put his Wimbledon participation in doubt.
Just last week, as he practised, the man mountain from Maryland was notably hobbling between rallies.
Yet at the start of a hugely watchable match he grabbed the decisive break his superb returning deserved to take the first set.
Alcaraz hit back in the second but some odd lapses of concentration in the third gifted Tiafoe two break points, with the 26-year-old taking the first after another exhibition-style rally when the Spaniard’s ‘tweener’ floated out.
Tiafoe looked on the verge of avenging the five-set defeat he suffered against Alcaraz in the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open deep in the fourth set.
But with his back to the wall when trailing by two sets to one and being outplayed by the swashbuckling Tiafoe, the Spanish third seed suddenly found an extra gear to seize control.
Alcaraz responded in devastating fashion to blaze through the tie-break and the fifth set was one-way traffic as Tiafoe’s energy levels finally began to subside.
Alcaraz clinched victory with a drop shot and the two players embraced warmly at the net as the crowd erupted.
His victory means he has now reached at least the fourth round in 10 of his first 14 Grand Slam tournaments.
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