It is still so far, so good for Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, as the defending champion brushed off Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets to reach the last 16.
The world No2 put in another impressive display on Centre Court, seeing off his German opponent 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-4.
The competition now ramps up a notch for the Spaniard, however. In the fourth round, he will face the 14th seed Andrey Rublev, who won in straight sets against the tricky qualifier Adrian Mannarino.
Alcaraz’s unseeded opponent was ranked 125th in the world and was competing in the Wimbledon third round for the fourth time, having never gone beyond. The Spaniard ensured the wait continues for the 35-year-old, who was a 2018 Australian Open doubles semi-finalist.
Five-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz was in inspired form in the opening set, which he took 6-1, but then faced difficulty against the aggressive game of Struff in the second, with the German coming out on top 6-3.
Alcaraz, who only turned 22 in May, raised his game in the third set by way of response, winning 6-3.
Struff looked more comfortable than the two-time Wimbledon champion in the opening games of the fourth set, pushing Alcaraz to deuce (at least) on all of his first four service games while looking much more assured when serving himself.
During this time, Alcaraz seemed to become distracted by perceived bobbles he felt had impacted missed shots, and at one point booted a ball away after his return of serve landed out.
But after a marathon game, he broke Struff’s serve for 5-4 and then served out for the match, his penultimate point won with the deftest of drop-shots, just over the net.
“I knew it was going to be really difficult,” Alcaraz said afterwards. “His game is suited pretty well to the grass — big serve — so I tried to put it to the net as much as I could.
“I’m just proud about getting the win in four sets. It was stressful! To be honest, I was suffering in every service game that I did today. It was stressful; it was about surviving.”
