Wimbledon: Carlos Alcaraz repels Frances Tiafoe in five sets and Jannik Sinner sails into fourth round

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz battled back against American Frances Tiafoe to win in five sets and reach the fourth round of Wimbledon, while world No 1 Jannik Sinner comfortably saw off Miomir Kecmanovic in straight sets.

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.

Sinner crushes Kecmanovic to breeze into fourth round

Sinner enjoyed a far more comfortable evening as the world No 1 cruised past unseeded Serb Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1 6-4 6-2 to secure his 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 on this occasion when again last on under the roof on Centre Court.

A backhand rocket earned Sinner an 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 when 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 and the tournament top seed raced to another huge lead in the third set and eventually put Kecmanovic out of his misery after an error from the Serb’s racket.

Paul and Dimitrov through to fourth round | Medvedev, Humbert, Fognini disrupted

Elsewhere in the men’s singles on Friday, there were only two other completed matches due to the rain.

The 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat France’s Gael Monfils in straight sets 6-3 6-4 6-3, while 12th seeded American Tommy Paul also won in straight sets, defeating Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Among the games uncompleted, Daniil Medvedev leads Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1 6-3 4-6, with the score 1-1 in the fourth set.

Frenchman Ugo Humbert also leads American Brandon Nakashima by two sets to one, ahead of a fourth set tiebreak. The score so far in that match reads: 7-6 (11-9) 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-6.

Lastly, Italy’s Fabio Fognini leads Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 7-5 4-5.

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