Wimbledon: Alcaraz delights with classy win over Vukic, moves into third round
Carlos Alcaraz beat Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday. He’ll play American Frances Tiafoe, the No 29 seed, in the next round
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz beat Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2 to move into the third round of Wimbledon.
The third seed was tested in the first set as he came up against a thoroughly impressive display from the Australian.
Alcaraz surged into a 5-2 lead, before the Australian broke back in the ninth game and then striking again in the eleventh to stun the defending champion in a run of four straight games that saw him serve for the opening set at 6-5. But the Spaniard lifted his game when he needed it most, breaking the Australian for a second time to force a tiebreak.
From there, Alcaraz looked comfortable, ripping winners and powerful returns to seal an entertaining breaker on his second set point.
The final two sets were a much more straightforward affair for the world No 3, who broke twice in each of the second and the third to run out an eventual comfortable winner after a testing start.
Alcaraz, ranked No 3, will face American Frances Tiafoe, the No 29 seed, next.
Ahead of his victory, the 21-year-old Spaniard beat Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal (7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-2).
Vukic, ranked No 69, won against Austrian Sebastian Ofner (6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8)) in the previous round of The Championships.
London (Grand Slam), other second-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 50.000.000, most recent results first):
- Marcos Giron vs. Alexander Zverev
- Jack Draper vs. Cameron Norrie
- Jacob Fearnley vs. Novak Djokovic
- Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Alexei Popyrin
- Holger Rune vs. Thiago Seyboth Wild
- Jaume Munar vs. Alex De Minaur
- Hubert Hurkacz vs. Arthur Fils
- Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
- Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
- Luciano Darderi vs. Lorenzo Musetti
- Francisco Comesana vs. Adam Walton
- Stan Wawrinka vs. Gael Monfils
- Lloyd Harris vs. Ben Shelton
- Denis Shapovalov vs. Daniel Altmaier
- Zhizhen Zhang vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
- Grigor Dimitrov vs. Juncheng Shang
- Jannik Sinner vs. Matteo Berrettini
- Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Tallon Griekspoor
- Tommy Paul vs. Otto Virtanen: wednesday
- Lorenzo Sonego vs. Roberto Bautista Agut: wednesday
- Arthur Cazaux vs. Alexander Bublik: wednesday
- Alexandre Muller vs. Daniil Medvedev: wednesday
- Ugo Humbert (16) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 7-6 (9), 6-1, 6-3
- Brandon Nakashima beat Jordan Thompson: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
- Frances Tiafoe beat Borna Coric: 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-3
- Fabio Fognini vs. Casper Ruud: wednesday