Alcaraz survives Tiafoe battle to sustain title defence

Defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz came close to relinquishing his crown against inspired American Frances Tiafoe but lived to fight another day with a 5-7 6-2 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2 victory on Centre Court on Friday.

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 came under intense pressure throughout a spellbinding third-round contest played in a superb spirit and which had the crowd fully involved.

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 Alcaraz responded in devastating fashion to blaze through the tiebreak 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.

Jannik Sinner switched to cruise mode as the world number one breezed past unseeded Serb Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1 6-4 6-2 for a place in the fourth round.

After his dogfight with fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini ended shortly before the 11pm local curfew on Wednesday, the 22-year-old wasted little time under the roof on Centre Court.

A backhand rocket earned Sinner the early break and set the tone for the opening set, which he sealed in 21 minutes dropping only one late game.

Kecmanovic came into the match with an uphill task having never beaten Sinner in three previous meetings and the 24-year-old did well to delay the inevitable in a tight second set.

He was soon staring down the barrel, however, as Australian Open champion Sinner broke for 5-4 before blasting three aces en route to tightening his vice-like grip with a two-set lead.

The winners continued to flow from Sinner’s racket as the lanky top seed raced to another huge lead in the third set and Kecmanovic put himself out of his misery with an error.