Frances Tiafoe may have bemoaned an inconsistent year in which he has “lost to clowns”, but the charismatic American came agonisingly close to dethroning Wimbledon’s boy-king in a pulsating four-hour, five-set match on Centre Court.
Carlos Alcaraz had trailed by two sets to one when the pair went to a tie-break in the fourth. The Spaniard had struggled to tame Tiafoe’s punishing first serve and brilliant touch at the net, but the mark of great champions is an ability to draw on every last drop of skill and courage when confronted by the abyss. Alcaraz has already demonstrated that in abundance throughout his short career and rediscovered his best to dominate the tie-break and fifth set to advance to the fourth round, where he will face Brandon Nakashima or Ugo Humbert.
“It’s always a big challenge playing against Frances,” Alcaraz said after his 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory.
“He is a really talented player, really tough to face and he has shown again that he deserves to be at the top. It was really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions to put him in trouble, but I’m really happy to do it at the end of the match.”
Tiafoe left the court to a deserved standing ovation but suffered from a bitter sense of déjà vu after falling short in the fifth in the pair’s last meeting at the US Open in 2022, where a teenage Alcaraz went on to claim his maiden grand-slam title. The 26-year-old might not have endeared himself to the locker room with his exasperated comments on Monday — “Think about where I’m at: literally this week last year I was ten in the world and now I’m barely seeded here, losing to clowns,” he said — but he is a fierce opponent when in full flight.
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Tiafoe carried the momentum of a swift second-round victory over Borna Coric into the match and implored the crowd to cheer louder after staving off early break points with the first in a long series of drumming serves. The champagne cork that clattered against the roof as he attempted to close out the set after breaking Alcaraz’s serve for a second time was not part of that plan, but the 29th seed was undeterred.
The deficit enlivened Alcaraz, who has suffered from such lapses on grass this year against Jack Draper at Queen’s Club and in an unexpectedly testing first-round match against Mark Lajal, but he returned to a more enthralling rhythm in the second with blistering variety and one cunning drop shot that left Tiafoe splayed on the grass.
The American’s knee was heavily strapped due to a recent medial ligament strain, and Alcaraz walked around the net to help him off the floor, but there was no let up in a contest where every point was played at full stretch.
The Spaniard had the momentum, but his shot selection in the third was questionable and an attempted tweener sailed long at 3-3 to hand over the break. There was no chance to recover it, with Tiafoe ceding just three points on his first serve all set.
When victory came within reach at 0-30 on Alcaraz’s serve midway through the fourth, though, the 21-year-old drew on all the mettle that underpins his enormous talent. A roar followed the hold of serve, he played sublimely during the tie-break, and Tiafoe was suddenly bereft of answers.
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“It was really important to stay there in the fourth set and just to keep fighting, to keep trying to play better just to give myself the chance to be alive in the match,” Alcaraz said.
“But yeah, I have to be better on that side and try to not have as many up and downs as I did today.”
Alcaraz had only lost one of the 12 matches in his career that had gone the full distance and was fittingly breathtaking in the decider here, hitting nine winners and making just four unforced errors.
The joy and relief on his face afterwards was a testament to Tiafoe, but it was still fixed on Alcaraz’s face when he finally bundled into his press conference well over an hour after the match had finished, having caught the end of Spain’s own comeback against Germany in the European Championship.
“I didn’t ask [to play early] because Wimbledon is Wimbledon,” Alcaraz said with a smile. “But I was really happy when I saw that I was playing in the first match [on Centre Court].”
