Carlos Alcaraz survived a major scare against Frances Tiafoe to book his spot in the second week of Wimbledon.
The reigning champion’s concentration faltered several times during the match until he recovered to win 4-6 6-2 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2.
But he will need to raise his level and avoid these concerning lapses if he wants to keep his title defence going.
Alcaraz and Tiafoe were facing off for the first time since their blockbuster 2022 US Open semi-final, where the Spaniard prevailed 6-7(6) 6-3 6-1 6-7(5) 6-3 in four hours and 19 minutes in front of Michelle Obama and a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd. He went on to win his first Grand Slam title and become the youngest-ever No. 1. Since then, he has won two more Majors.
The setting for their third meeting was completely different as they stepped out onto Centre Court at 1.30pm with the likes of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Dustin Hoffman in the Royal Box. Defending champion Alcaraz pounced first, ripping a forehand winner to break for a 4-2 lead. But the third seed was clearly not at his best.
A flurry of errors allowed Tiafoe to break back immediately and Alcaraz was under more pressure at 4-4. The 21-year-old struggled to land his first serve and had his back against the wall as he saved three break points. The American has struggled for form this year and until this week, he had not won back-to-back matches at a single tournament since April.
But Tiafoe relishes the big stages and he rose to the occasion, showing his skills at the net to get a crucial break before closing out a 55-minute set 7-5. After going missing for almost an hour, Alcaraz finally started to pick up the pace. The world No. 3 arrived in a pivotal game in the second set as he broke to lead 4-2. Unlike the first set, the Spaniard refused to fall away and stormed through the rest of set two.
As Tiafoe served to stay in it at 2-5, he slipped on the court and Alcaraz rushed around the net to make sure that his friend and rival was okay. But play resumed as normal and the 21-year-old went back to his ruthless self, passing the 29th seed with a backhand winner to take the set.
It didn’t last long, as last year’s winner suffered another drop in the third. Two unforced errors gave Tiafoe a break point as Tim Henman declared that Alcaraz “only had himself to blame” on BBC commentary. The 26-year-old came to the net and forced another mistake from his rival’s racket to grab an advantage and went on to take a two-set-to-one lead.
It was a routine fourth set but the third seed found himself in trouble when he went 0-30 down at 4-4. He reeled off four straight points to keep his nose ahead and let out an almightly roar. There was another loud reaction from Alcaraz as he fired down a forehand to hold for 6-5 and the passion helped him as he was taken to a must-win tiebreak.
Alcaraz raced into a 5-0 lead, dazzling as he grabbed two mini-breaks of the Tiafoe serve, and forced a decider with more than three hours on the clock already. The 21-year-old drew first blood in the fifth set, bringing Tiafoe to the net and passing him with a winner.
The American’s intensity started to drop and Alcaraz gave himself the cushion of a double-break with one of his signature drop shots. After being just a few points away from an early exit, the world No. 3 kept his title defence alive in another gruelling five-set Grand Slam battle between the pair. At three hours and 53 minutes, it was still shorter than their US Open epic.
But Alcaraz will have to raise his level if he wants to have any shot at going further in the tournament. His performance against Tiafoe will raise serious questions over whether he can retain his crown and he will have to come out looking a lot better when he faces either Ugo Humbert or Brandon Nakashima in the fourth round.
“Well obviously it’s always a big challenge playing against Frances. As I said many, many times, he’s a really talented player, really tough to face and he showed it once again that he deserves to be in the top, he deserves to fight for bit things. It was, as I said, really, really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions, to try to put him in trouble. But really happy to do it at the end of the match,” Alcaraz said after the match.
Addressing the fourth set tiebreak where he raised his level, he added: “A lot of difficult moments during the fourth set. You know, when I was serving, a lot of 15-30, 0-30 and all I was thinking is, Okay, fight one more ball, one more ball. Thinking about the next point. And obviously in the tiebreak I always tell myself that I have to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it but I have to feel that I went for it all the time.”
