London – Carlos Alcaraz’s latest up and down Wimbledon performance begins with a fallout match. Later on Sunday, he was in danger of being broken to fall further in the third inning. Then, as he often does, Alcaraz grabbed the moment, produced some magic and made his third straight title at All England Club.
Alcaraz extended his winning streak in the Grassland Grand Slam Championship to reach 18 games, and he currently beat No. 14 seed Andrey Rublev 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, returning to the quarter-movie at the Center Court.
In the first matchup between the top 20 of the two men in the two weeks, Alcaraz was second, while the third set dropped 3-2. First, he needs to fight for Rublev’s rest opportunity with the forehand pass champion.
After finally holding on to 3 strokes, Alcaraz got his own rest and did not let Rublev escape. In the eight-stroke exchange, Alcaraz sprinted from one corner of the court to another, slid with his right foot, and he ignored a cross-country forehand champion.
Oh, he likes that. Alcaraz opened his arms and pointed to his right ear and basked in the sun in the loud swaying of the crowd, the noise bounced from under the closed roof of the stadium.
Rublev sat on his sideline chair, looking up at his guest box, sending a sarcastic “OK” hand signal. Just 10 minutes later, the scene belongs to Alcaraz, who will face 2022 semi-finalist Cam Norrie on Tuesday, who will win the berth of the last four games on Tuesday.
“I always say it’s just a belief in yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are consistent in love,” Alkaraz said. “Tennis is a sport that can only change at a point. One point can completely change the game and turn everything.”
No. 61 Norrie played college tennis at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas and beat the qualifier Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-3, who beat the qualifier Nicolas Jarry 6-3. Norrie had a chance to close things earlier than he did but failed to convert a match point and led 6-5 in the third set decisive.
The other men’s quarterfinals will be Taylor Fritz in No. 5, while Karen Khachanov is No. 17. Fritz, runner-up at the U.S. Open last year, resigned after 40 minutes after a back and leg injury that had been handled throughout the game.
Alcaraz, who is only 22 years old, already has five Grand Slam trophys, the latest to arrive at the French Open in June. He hasn’t lost anywhere since he’s against Holger Rune in Barcelona’s final since April 20.
Of course, there were turnovers, including two sets behind Alcaraz against Jannik Sinner in the Roland-Garros final. Or, after Espanyol rose 5-3 in its first decisive game against Rublev, four consecutive points.
He hasn’t been as close to perfect as others in the past week: Sina, Ben Sheldon and No. 22 Flavio Coboli have not yet been put into their fourth round.
So, of course, Alcaraz has cut five sets, but the most important thing is that he hasn’t lost the game.
What else happened on Wimbledon on Sunday?
No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals at her 11th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, defeating No. 24 Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6 (4), and will play unseeded Laura Siegemund, the 37-year-old German who followed up her escapement of Australian Open champion Madison Keys by beating lucky loser Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat a missed call late in the first set (when the electronics system was shut down unexpectedly) and beat Sonay Kartal 7-6 (3), 6-4, returning to the quarterfinals of Grass-Court Major in nine years. Pavlyuchenkova’s opponent will be Amanda Anisimova or Linda Noskova on Tuesday.
Who plays at the All England Club on Monday?
The fourth game on Monday included Novak Djokovic against Alex de Minaur at 1:30 p.m. local time (8:30 ET). They were supposed to face each other in Wimbledon’s quarterfinals last year, but De Minaur was forced to quit with a hip injury. This will be the central court of Mirra Andreeva vs. Emma Navarro, followed by Sinner vs. 19 Grigor Dimitrov.
