Alcaraz survives Humbert fightback to return to Wimbledon quarter-finals
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. He will face the winner of the match between Tommy Paul and Bautista Agut in the last eight
Carlos Alcaraz, Wimbledon, 2024 Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic
Carlos Alcaraz was given a stern challenge by the impressive Ugo Humbert, coming through a late fightback from the Frenchman to win 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 and reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.
It is Alcaraz’s seventh consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final, a run stretching back to his US Open triumph in September 2022, and he returns to the last eight at the All England Club one year on from clinching his maiden Wimbledon title.
Humbert gave a superb account of himself, pushing the Spaniard close throughout the encounter but especially in the last two sets, across which he was arguably the better player.
The gameplan was based around first-strike tennis, with Humbert looking to take on any loose balls early in the rally to avoid being dragged into a baseline contest with Alcaraz.
But the Spaniard looked comfortable in the opening set, breaking twice to move into a one-set lead as Humbert struggled to cause damage on his opponent’s service games. It took time for the Frenchman’s gameplan to pay dividends, but the tide began to turn with the arrival of a new set.
The second was a much closer affair, with a sole break for Alcaraz in the tenth and final game of the stanza the only difference between the two as he moved into a commanding two-set lead.
humbert surges in third set to put alcaraz under pressure
But the inroads that Humbert had been making in the match finally began to reap rewards, as he broke in the third, fifth and seventh games in an excellent third-set display during which he dominated the Spaniard.
Alcaraz’s problems on serve continued in the fourth. The pair exchanged two breaks each early on, with the defending champion unable to pull away from the resolute Frenchman.
That is, until the world No 3 pounced on the smallest dip in form from his opponent to break for the sixth time in the match in the eleventh game. It was a sucker punch for Humbert, who had outplayed Alcaraz for the past two sets. But the Spaniard’s supreme experience showed itself on the significant points as he expertly raised his level when it mattered most.
Alcaraz clinched victory in the next game, sending down an unreturned serve on his first match point to come through unscathed after a very thorough examination from the world No 16.
“Playing lefties is always tricky, no matter the surface,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.
“I played my first leftie at Queen’s so I learnt a little bit from that. I felt great playing today, I think I played a really high level and playing a leftie I tried not to think about it and just played my own game.
“Set point is a really important point for me so I had to show the opponent that whatever shot he shoots, I will be there.
“That’s me, I will be there, fighting until the last ball and sometimes it is a good point like this one and sometimes I lose it but the main thing is just to fight.”
The defending champion remains undefeated at SW19 since a fourth-round loss to Jannik Sinner two years ago. He is now on an 11-match winning streak at Wimbledon, but could face this year’s Queen’s champion and twelfth seed Tommy Paul in the last eight, should the American come through his fourth-round match against Bautista Agut later today.
