(Wimbledon) The world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz qualified for the third round of Wimbledon on Friday by beating a second French player in a row, Alexandre Müller (84th), 6-4, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
“I’m very, very happy. it was my second match on this court (the Central, editor’s note) where I had lost last year. I wanted to take advantage of it and I did,” said the 20-year-old Spaniard, who does not hide his ambitions to win the tournament. To do this, he will have to dismiss the Chilean Nicolas Jarry (28th) or the Australian Jason Kubler (77th) in the third round.
“I play very well on grass, I like it. I’m gaining experience and playing better and better,” he warned on Friday.
For his second participation last year at Wimbledon, Alcaraz was eliminated in the round of 16 by the Italian Jannik Sinner after a breathtaking match.
This year, after winning his first title on grass at Queen’s just before coming to Wimbledon, he says he is aiming for a second Grand Slam title after the United States Open last year.
Facing Müller, Alcaraz managed the only break in the first set to break away 4-3 and keep the advantage until the end.
In the second set, Müller managed to take his opponent to the tiebreak, but couldn’t prevent him from pocketing the set.
The third set tipped in the Spaniard’s favor when he broke to lead 5-3 and serve for the match winner.
He then saved two balls of debris before concluding on his second match point. The first was saved by an exceptional winning return from the Frenchman, but the second was punctuated by a magnificent forehand winner from the Spaniard.
In the first round, Alcaraz ended the singles career of another Frenchman, Jérémy Chardy.
Daniil Medvedev, 3rd in the world, concluded his Wimbledon second round match on Friday, interrupted the day before by the night and dismissed Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (35th) 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
“When he’s playing well, he’s playing at top-5 level, but sometimes he misses easy shots. So I’m happy to have won in three sets,” commented the 27-year-old Russian.
At the time of Thursday night’s interruption, he was leading 6-3, 6-3, 4-4. He only had to play four games and a tiebreaker on Friday to earn his ticket to the third round where he will find the American Marcos Giron (65th) or the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (67th).
“I really acted as if the game continued (Thursday): I took a shower, but I didn’t wash my hair,” Medvedev commented on how he experienced the interruption.
On the restart, Mannarino saved a break point at 5-5 and managed to hold on until the tiebreaker.
Medvedev offered himself two match points at 6/4, the first on his serve. A double fault allowed Mannarino to come back to 5/6, but the Frenchman committed an unforced error on the second and gave the victory to his opponent.
The grass-court Major is the least successful for Medvedev, whose best result is an 8th final played there in 2021, before being banned from participating last year, like all Russian and Belarusian players, due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Winner of the 2021 United States Open, he was a finalist in Australia (2021 and 2022) and played quarterfinals at Roland-Garros (2021).
Stefanos Tsitsipas, 5th in the world, overcame Scottish battler Andy Murray (40th) in two days, five sets and three tiebreakers, Friday in the second round of Wimbledon where he won 7-6 (7/3 ), 6-7 (2/7), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
The 24-year-old Greek will face Serbian Laslo Djere (60th) for a place in the round of 16.
Tsitsipas was a finalist at the Australian Open (2023) and at Roland-Garros (2021), but has never passed the round of 16 at Wimbledon (reached in 2018 for his second participation), nor the third round at the International of UNITED STATES.
The game against Murray started on Thursday. Obviously supported by the Center Court crowd, the two-time Scottish winner of the grass-court Major (2013, 2016) had just won the third set and took the advantage two sets to one when the 11 p.m. curfew intervened.
On the restart, however, and still in an almost hostile atmosphere, Tsitsipas managed to snatch a fifth round.
In this decisive set, he managed the break to break away 2-1 and was not caught again. Murray saved two match points well, but the Greek won on the third after 4:40 am of arm wrestling.
The Italian Jannik Sinner (8th in the world), although having given up his first set in three games on Friday, qualified for the knockout stages of Wimbledon by dismissing the Frenchman Quentin Halys (79th) 3-6, 6-2 , 6-3, 6-4.
“I didn’t start out in the best possible way and it’s never easy to play against someone for the first time. So the important thing is to be in the next round,” commented last year’s quarter-finalist.
“Today I didn’t feel the best on the pitch, but I tried to find the solution and I’m happy to have qualified,” he added.
After losing the first round, Sinner clearly took the next two rounds.
But from the start of the fourth, Halys made the break to lead 2-0. The Italian, however, immediately recovered at 2-2.
He then made the decisive break to lead 5-4 and serve for the match.
“The advantage, when you lose early at Roland-Garros, which was my case (in the 2nd round, editor’s note), is that you have time to prepare for Wimbledon! “, he launched in a burst of laughter. He reached the quarters in Bois-le-Duc then Halle before arriving in London.
Holger Rune (6th in the world) qualified for the third round of Wimbledon on Friday, where he had never won a single match, by dismissing the Spaniard Roberto Carballes (57th) 6-3, 7-6 (7/ 3), 6-4.
In the next round, the 20-year-old Dane will try to climb into the round of 16 against the Spaniard, Alejandro Davidovich (34th) or the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp (44th).
During his first participation in the Major on grass last year, Rune had been eliminated from the start and had only defeats on this surface.
This year, before coming to Wimbledon, he won his very first court matches (3) on the ATP Tour by reaching the semi-finals at Queen’s.
He started the Major with a win spanning two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, becoming the first Dane to win a match at Wimbledon since Kenneth Karlsen in 2004.
His best results in Grand Slam, he obtained them at Roland-Garros where he reached the quarter-finals twice in 2022 and 2023 (beaten both times by Ruud).
Facing Carballes, the first round took a long time to take shape, the players having difficulty holding their face-off.
But at 3-3 and 15/30 on his serve, Rune won the next eleven points to pocket the first set.
In the next, both players won their face-off until the tiebreak where Rune took the lead.
In the third, Rune gave up his serve and allowed Carballes to lead 4-3, but he broke in stride and made the decisive break in the last game of the game, concluding on his first match point.
World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka went one game away from losing, but she eventually beat Russian-born Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva (41st) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Friday in the second round of Wimbledon. .
The 25-year-old Belarusian, who is one of the favorites for the title, will play against Russian Anna Blinkova (40th) to try to advance to the knockout stages of the Major on grass.
“It was crazy… She played incredibly well and I’m very happy to have won,” said Sabalenka, a semi-finalist in 2021 and banned from the tournament last year due to her nationality and the war in Ukraine. .
“I couldn’t find my rhythm so I tried to hang on,” she added, having committed a lot of unforced errors (35) and double faults (9).
In the sixth game of the first set, Sabalenka committed three unforced errors and a double fault to offer the break to Gracheva who broke away 4-2 and confirmed at 5-2 after saving three balls from debris.
Two double faults and an unforced error later, Sabalenka offered three set points to Gracheva who took advantage of another unforced error from Belarus (the 16th in the set) to pocket the first set.
In the second set, the naturalized Frenchwoman in early June led 5-4, one game away from victory.
But as if by magic the match suddenly tipped in favor of Belarus.
She won seven points in a row to equalize at 5-5 and afford three break points on the French serve. She converted the second and served at 6-5 to propel the game into a third set.
Entering the decisive set, Sabalenka offered herself two break points, but failed to convert them.
It was only a postponement as she took the next serve from Gracheva to lead 2-1, confirm at 3-1 and soar to victory.
Petra Kvitova advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon tournament for a second consecutive year on Friday, nine years after winning her second career title at the All England Club.
The 33-year-old Czech, who was injured in a stabbing at her home in 2016, defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-2 on the fifth day of action at the tournament in Grand Slam presented on grass.
The left-handed clinched her first Wimbledon title in 2011, and her second in 2014. She made only one other Grand Slam final thereafter, losing to Japan’s Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open. Australia in 2019.
In addition, Madison Keys, an American player who won the Eastbourne tournament on grass shortly before Wimbledon, also passed the second round. The 25th seed defeated Viktorija Golubic 7-5, 6-3.
Keys will have a date in the next round with Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk. The latter benefited from the abandonment of Spaniard Paula Badosa due to a back injury, while Kostyuk led 6-2, 1-0.
Meanwhile, Stefanos Tsitsipas will continue his second-round match against two-time Wimbledon titleholder Andy Murray later on Friday on center court. That clash was cut short on Thursday as the Briton led 6-7(3), 7-6(2) and 6-4.
Tournament favorite Iga Swiatek and seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic are also due to hit the London lawn in the third round.
