Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz survived a massive scare to prove himself a tennis marathon man and make the last-16 of Wimbledon.
I had to tell myself to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it but I have to feel that I went for it all the time and most of the time it works on my side and that happened today again Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz woke up the beast within him late after a largely subdued performance to roar back from 2-1 down and complete a second successive five-set Slam victory over Frances Tiafoe.
It took ten minutes shy of four hours to defeat the American he overcame over the full distance in the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open on route to his first major title.
Actor Dustin Hoffman, the star of the film Marathon Man looking on, would no doubt have approved of his staying power as he completed his 5-7 6-2 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2 win under the roof on Centre Court.
The 21-year-old Spanish phenomenon said: “Always a big challenge playing against Frances. He is a really talented player, really tough to face and he has shown again that he deserves to be at the top and fight for big things.
“Really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions to put him in trouble but I was really happy to do it at the end of the match.
“I faced a lot of difficult moments during the fourth set. There were a lot of difficult moments in the tiebreak, and I was just thinking about hitting one more ball.
“I had to tell myself to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it but I have to feel that I went for it all the time and most of the time it works on my side and that happened today again.
“They (his team) say they suffer more than me. Watching from the box and having the feeling that they can’t do anything is really difficult to deal with.
“But the support is always so helpful from my team and my family. Probably matches like this one would be impossible to win without them.”
He made a decent start with an early break in the opening set.
Tiafoe, though, was in no mood to stand aside. The relaxed style of his shot-making, especially when returning Alcaraz’s serve, was effective.
And he was able to take control as the player across the other side of the net faltered.
Tiafoe broke the third seed and had three points for a second at 4-4. But the American refused to be denied. And breaking Alcaraz again allowed him to serve out and take the set.
Alcaraz found better form in the second set. He was out to stand alongside Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander as the only winner of four Slams aged 21 and under. And started to put the 29th seed on the back foot with his variety of shots and heavy serve.
Tiafoe was under pressure and was broken twice as Alcaraz levelled the match.
Alcaraz looked comfortable at the start of the third but, out of the blue, his form dropped, and he gifted a break to the American at 3-3. Tiafoe held to force the Spaniard to serve to save the set.
Alcaraz managed to hold. But he wasn’t firing on all cylinders. The execution of his normally reliable forehand had been below par. And he appeared more serene than pumped up. And Tiafoe was able to serve out for a 2-1 lead.
It left Alcaraz having to go the whole way to secure the victory.
It seemed, despite being champion, he was struggling. Perhaps the fact he suffered a surprise defeat against Britain’s Jack Draper at Queen’s in the build-up to his defence, played on his mind.
It went with serve, with Alcaraz still seemingly a little flat as his 26-year-old opponent attempted to seal the win.
And alarm bells began to ring as he went 0-30 down on his serve at 4-4. But Alcaraz managed to rev himself up enough to hold on.
Tiafoe wasn’t going away and surrender the set and pulled out a solid service game. The lion in Alcaraz began to roar as he held to go 6-5 up. His intensity was picked up on by the crowd who were clearly rooting for him.
Tiafoe took it to a tie-break where suddenly the lion in Alcaraz was unleashed again as he roared to a 5-0 lead playing aggressive tennis before making it two-sets all.
Alcaraz underlined why he was king of this particular jungle as he broke Tiafoe twice in the deciding set. The shots, the movement, the attack and the defence were all there. His inner fire lit. And combined it sealed the victory.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
