Wimbledon: Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz battles into last 16 but no such trouble for world number one Jannik Sinner
As the heavens opened over southwest London, play was ended in late afternoon on all but a few of the All England Club’s courts.
But the big action — including wins for second women’s seed Coco Gauff and British hope Emma Raducanu — was able to be played under the Centre Court and Court One roofs.
Alcaraz, 21 — a past winner of three Grand Slam tournaments and the final semi-finalist from the opening major his season will be blasted out on Friday when he meets unbeatable American Frances Tiafoe in another repeat match-up from their dramatic U. S.Open Duel.
And once more it was the teenager who had the bigger guns — 55 winners from Alcaraz to Tiafoe’s 39 in a third-round clash littered with breathtaking rallies as he claimed a pulsating victory by saving five match points, following another down-the-wire scoreline of 5-7; -6(2); -4;,;-d–3;,;.
Alcaraz is the youngest man left in Paris and was struggling at times under extreme pressure from the all-action American towards end of fourth set but finally powered through a tiebreak before running away with it into deciding fifth.
In experience terms, he is unbeaten 11-0 in five-setters and has now made the fourth round at ten of his first 14 Grand Slam tournaments.
I’m toying with the stats, I’ve only been beaten once in a fifth set. That’s an advantage for me. So that’s why in those situations I play at my high level,” he told.
It only got better for Alcaraz later in the day when he played early enough to watch Spain beat Germany at Euro 2024 – not that he asked to play first.
The Italy flop briefcase Sinner was no longer interested in the soccer Photo: Armin Diekmann Instead, the highest seed is appearing to turn out to be the second Italian with multiple Grand Slam titles after Nicola Pietrangeli.
