Carlos Alcaraz remains on course to meet Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final – but the seven-time champion will not be having sleepless nights just yet.
World number one Alcaraz, touted as the only realistic challenger to Djokovic this fortnight, joined the Serbian in the fourth round after beating Nicolas Jarry.
But it took the Spaniard four sets and almost four hours to get past a player who had not played at Wimbledon for four years and before this week had only won one match here.
Chilean Jarry is a player on an upward curve, however, having risen from 152 in the world at the start of the year to a career-high 28.
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Nevertheless, it looked like being plain sailing when Alcaraz won his 17th consecutive set with a solitary break.
But in the second-set tie-break, Alcaraz dumped a forehand into the net to drop a set for the first time since he played Arthur Rinderknech in the first round at Queen’s last month.
Alcaraz regained the initiative to take the third with a solitary break while Jarry hit the roof – literally – with one particularly wild swing.
Yet the indefatigable Jarry found a second wind and broke again at the start of the fourth, before an incorrect challenge from Alcaraz – who stopped playing only to discover Jarry’s return had clipped the baseline – left him on his haunches in annoyance with himself.
But Alcaraz steadied himself to hit back for 3-4 and then showed why he is the player at the top of the tree with an unstoppable backhand return to break before serving out for a hard-earned 6-3 6-7 (6) 6-3 7-5 victory.
“It has been really tough, Nicolas is a really great player, he’s playing really well,” said Alcaraz. “I’m just really happy with the level I played to get through this tough round.
“I had to stay focused. I knew I would have my chances. I would say the key is to believe and stay focused all the time.”
Third seed Daniil Medvedev also dropped a set but hit back to beat Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas is proving as durable as the Parthenon at this year’s Wimbledon after reaching the second week still very much standing after victory over Serbia’s Laslo Djere.
A day after throwing cold water over British hopes by outlasting Andy Murray in a five-set cliffhanger spanning two days on Centre Court, he returned to dispatch Serbia’s Djere in more straightforward fashion, winning 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4.
The 24-year-old’s energy levels looked undiminished despite it being his fifth successive day on court, a shift that began with a first-round five-setter against former US Open champion Dominic Thiem – a match that took two days to complete.
His clash with Murray, where he battled the two-time Wimbledon champion and the 15,000 fans for nearly five hours, was the longest match in the tournament so far.
He has spent eight hours and 46 minutes on court and a more relaxing Sunday is well-earned.
After that he will focus on his fourth round match against unseeded American Christopher Eubanks who continued his impressive run on grass with victory over Christopher O’Connell on Saturday.
Tsitsipas pocketed the first set when Djere faltered serving at 4-5, double-faulting on set point.
He found himself a break down in the second set but once he repaired that damage and took the tie-break it was relatively smooth for the elegant Greek shot-maker.
In the women’s, Petra Kvitova reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for only the second time since triumphing at the All England Club nine years ago with a 6-3 7-5 win over Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic in a rain-disrupted encounter on Saturday.
The Czech ninth seed needed four set points to seal the first set as menacing dark clouds hovered over Court Two, with her 225th ranked opponent slapping a service return long.
At 1-1 in the second set, Stevanovic was left rather agitated when Hawkeye confirmed she had hit an ace but the umpire ruled she would have to replay the point since the linesperson’s call would have prevented Kvitova from attempting to return the ball.
A clearly distracted Stevanovic struggled to forget the incident and ended up being broken after Kvitova’s service return kissed the line.
Although the 28-year-old, who had beaten former world number one Karolina Pliskova in the opening round, broke back in the next game, she struggled to cope with Kvitova’s powerful attacking game and dropped her serve again to trail 2-3.
However, Kvitova, who also won the grasscourt major in 2011, saw her serve falter and she allowed Stevanovic to take a 5-4 lead as the heavens opened over southwest London.
Following a two-hour rain break, Kvitova appeared determined to make her greater firepower count, although the final game turned into an almighty tussle of wills.
Stevanovic, who overcame a life-threatening cyst on her liver when she was 21, stretched the Czech to six deuces, three break points and even won the longest rally of the match, capping off a breathtaking 20-shot exchange with a forehand winner into the corner.
After watching three match points disappear thanks to Stevanovic’s dogged resilience, Kvitova finally triumphed on her fourth attempt to seal a last-16 showdown.
