Carlos Alcaraz forced a fifth set in his thrilling third round clash with American Frances Tiafoe at Wimbledon. The defending champion took the fourth set in the top-level match to level the match at 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2) after three hours and 16 minutes of hard-fought action on Center Court. .
Alcaraz is on a nine-match winning streak at The Championships, having beaten Novak Djokovic in last year’s final. However, the Spaniard’s title hopes remained intact on Friday afternoon, when Tiafoe produced one of his best performances of the season to push the Spaniard to his limit.
Tiafoe came into SW19 with back-to-back wins in only two tour-level events this year (Delray Beach, Houston). However, he looked back to the form that helped him reach the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open, where he fell to Alcaraz in a huge five-set semi-final.
The 26-year-old, currently No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will face France’s Ugo Humbert or countryman Brandon Nakashima in the fourth round if he can beat Alcaraz.
[ATP APP]In high-quality play, both produced magical moments, and extended cat-and-mouse circles like the sequence of the day. Tiafoe recovered from a break in the first set to take the lead and then won 84 percent (16/19) of his first service points in the third set to move within one set of just his fourth Top 5 victory. Alcaraz responded in the fourth set to force a decider. The third seed produced a series of stunning groundstrokes in the fourth set tie-break and unleashed a flurry of roars en route to leveling the match for the second time.
Alcaraz is chasing his third trophy of the season and fourth major title overall. Last month, he won at Roland Garros to become the youngest man in history to win a major at all three venues.
The two are tied 1-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, and their first Wimbledon meeting on grass.
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