By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -Carlos Alcaraz came through a ferocious fourth-round firefight against a red-hot Andrey Rublev to win 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court and keep his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on track on Sunday.
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.
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. 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.
“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.
Rublev, 27, has barely been outside of the top 10 since 2022 but has never got close to winning a Grand Slam, losing all 10 quarter-finals that he has contested.
The 14th seed must have sighed when he saw Alcaraz in his way in the fourth round, but he came out in positive fashion, off-loading rockets at the five-time Grand Slam champion.
With the roof closed after earlier thunderstorms the noise of the ball striking strings sounded like rifle shots.
Rublev hit harder, then harder still and at 5-5 in the opening set launched an outrageous backhand winner off a full-blooded Alcaraz forehand and then followed with a powerful forehand of his own to the baseline to move a set ahead.
He barely did anything wrong after that but Alcaraz, finally clicking into gear after three scratchy wins, showed why taking the title off him will be such a tough task.
The turning point came at 3-3 in the third set when Rublev, attempting to save a break point, sent Alcaraz sliding from side to side with a barrage of power only for the Spaniard to whip a forehand cross court winner, before cupping his ear to the crowd who rose as one to salute the moment of genius.
Rublev stuck manfully to his task but he was powerless to prevent an 11th loss from 11 matches against top-five opponents at a Grand Slam.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)
Comments