Wimbledon 2024: Carlos Alcaraz roars back to defeat Frances Tiafoe in five-set thriller
Spanish and world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz battled back in style to defeat American Frances Tiafoe in five gruelling sets in their third-round clash in the men's singles event at the Wimbledon on Friday, July 5.
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Tiafoe, who is seeded 29th at the All England Club, played some superb tennis and led by a set and then two-sets-to-one, but eventually, Alcaraz responded to triumph in the decider, 5-7 6-2 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2, to reach the fourth round.
The American roared into a one-set lead as he pounced to break in ruthless fashion from 5-5, and suddenly the Centre Court crowd knew they were witnessing Alcaraz being presented with a serious challenge.
Alcaraz did not have things his own way from the back of the court, and he certainly struggled when his opponent moved towards the net to shorten the points. However, he did manage to hit back with a strong break of serve early in the second set.
No sooner had the Spaniard responded by taking the second set, Tiafoe again forced the advantage with a brilliant break of serve before consolidating to restore his advantage with a potentially huge upset on the cards.
However, Alcaraz eventually found a way through his opponent's doughty defences as he clinched a fine victory over five sets with a level of tennis that was extremely high in his title defence at SW19.
"It's always a big challenge playing against Frances [Tiafoe]," he said in his on-court interview. "He is a really talented player, really tough to face, and he has shown again that he deserves to be at the top and fight for big things.
"It was really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions to put him in trouble, but really happy to do it at the end of the match.
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"I faced a lot of difficult moments during the fourth set. There were a lot of difficult moments in the tie-break, and I was just thinking about hitting one more ball.
"I have to tell myself to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it, but I have to feel that I went for it all the time and most of the time it works on my side, and that happened today, again."
Paying tribute to his team watching on, he added: "They say they suffer more than me. Watching from the box and having the feeling that they can't do anything is really difficult to deal with.
"But the support is always so helpful from my team and my family. Probably matches like this one would be impossible to win without them."
