 6-3 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court, keeping his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on track.){kind=link}
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz came through a ferocious fourth-round thriller against a red-hot Andrey Rublev to win 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court, keeping his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on track.
Rublev rocked Alcaraz by roaring into a 4-1 lead only to be pegged back but the Russian produced some astonishing tennis to snatch the tiebreak and move ahead.
Alcaraz never looked ruffled though and levelled the match after Rublev double-faulted on a break point.
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Rublev continued throwing everything in his arsenal at the champion in the third set but paid for not taking some early break points as Alcaraz found another gear.
Alcaraz looked impregnable in the fourth set and a single break of serve was enough to seal a 22nd successive match win and set up a last-eight clash with Britain’s Cameron Norrie.
The Spanish second seed stuttered in his opening three rounds but found his best form to eventually subdue an inspired opponent who once again came up short against the very best.
“Andrey is one of the most powerful players we have on Tour and is so aggressive with the ball. It’s really difficult to face him, he forces you to the limit on each point,” Alcaraz, bidding to become only the fourth man to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles multiple times, said on court.
“Really happy with the way I moved and played intelligent and smart tactically. A really good match all round.”
With so many seeds having fallen early, this was the first match between top-20 players in the men’s singles this year and it did not disappoint as the quality scaled rare heights.