LONDON: Carlos Alcaraz was forced to dig deep on Saturday to see off the challenge of Nicolas Jarry and reach the last 16 at Wimbledon. The Spanish top seed, seen as the man most likely to end Novak Djokovic’s long reign at the All England Club, was off-colour but still won 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3, 7-5.
A single break in the first set was enough for Alcaraz to edge ahead but he faltered in the second, slipping 4-1 behind.
The US Open champion clawed his way back, forcing a tie-break, but that went the way of his Chilean opponent, seeded 25th.
Alcaraz regrouped and took the third set 6-3 but the errors crept in again and he found himself in trouble at 3-0 down in the fourth.
The 20-year-old survived two break points in the following game and broke back when Jarry went long with a forehand.
He conjured a searing backhand return to break again in the 11th game and served out for the win.
“I’m really happy with the level that I played to get through this really tough match,” said Alcaraz.
He added: “It was really, really close. He has great shots... I would say the key is to believe all the time and stay focused.”
Beatriz Haddad Maia moved into the fourth round for the first time in her career with an emphatic 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sorana Cirstea.
Petra Kvitova reached the fourth round for only the second time since triumphing at the All England Club nine years ago with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic in a rain-disrupted encounter.
The Czech ninth seed needed four set points to seal the first set as menacing dark clouds hovered over Court Two, with her 225th ranked opponent slapping a service return long.
Daniil Medvedev has been making up for lost time as he downed Hungary's Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to match his best ever showing at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round.
A year after being banned from playing at the All England Club following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow-born Medvedev survived a wayward opening set to topple an opponent who had won their only previous meeting at a major.
When the 67th-ranked Fucsovics gave Medvedev the runaround in the opening set, with the Russian misfiring his returns time and again, visions of his 2020 Roland Garros first round win over the third seed must have flashed through his mind.
But Medvedev trampled on those dreams in the fourth game of the second set, when he broke Fucsovics to love after the Hungarian double-faulted to surrender his serve.
Playing under a closed Court One roof as the rain came down on a leafy southwest London, both players entertained the crowd with some acrobatic shot-making.
In other third round matches, Christopher Eubanks beat Christopher O'Connell 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, Jiri Lehecka beat Tommy Paul 6-2, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 6-2.
In women’s section, 2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-3, Ekaterina Alexandrova beat Dalma Gálfi 6-0, 6-4 to reach the fourth round. Agencies
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