Daniil Medvedev and Ons Jabeur recovered from a set down in contrasting circumstances, world no. 1 Carlos Alcaraz survived a Chilean scare in four sets before last year’s champion Elena Rybakina needed less than an hour to extinguish British wildcard Katie Boulter’s hopes in the Centre Court nightcap.
Rune rallies past Fokina, is Berrettini back booming?
- Czech youngster Jiri Lehecka’s run continues, after holding firm and refusing to capitulate in five-set scalp at Australian Open semifinalist Tommy Paul‘s expense – he had a match point in the fourth set tiebreak, before an incorrect line challenge gave American new lease of life
- He’ll play former world no. 1 and 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev in R4, after the Russian rallied from a set down and produced some lockdown tennis during baseline rallies during high-pressure moments to eventually beat a familiar face in Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics
- Revenge tastes sweet: 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini snaps three-match H2H losing streak against Alexander Zverev, serves 15 aces and saves only break point faced across two-and-a-half hours’ action to overwhelm Olympic champion with two tight tiebreaks to boot
The tournament’s sixth seed, 20-year-old talent Holger Rune recovered from the brink on more than one occasion – an ill-advised underarm serve notwithstanding – en route to an epic five-set win over fellow seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The Spaniard was superb at times and wasteful in other stages, increasingly agitated the match’s momentum never really settled in his favour against a persistent threat across all angles repeatedly forcing him into uncomfortable spots and long rallies.
Rune’s serving percentages too had peaks and troughs which the 24-year-old couldn’t match: 19-7 in aces, even as the Dane coughed up nine double-faults across a near four-hour battle between them.
The younger of the pair recorded 15 more winners (61-46) and unforced errors too (57-42), yet it won’t be surprising to find out there was just one total point won between them (169-168) – the man who better held his nerves late on prevailed.
After making Danish history, Rune will play either Grigor Dimitrov or Frances Tiafoe in R4 on Monday as frequent rainfall caused their matchup to end prematurely on one of the outside courts before the 9pm curfew.
Dimitrov leads 6-3, 6-3 with play set to resume this afternoon, even as more poor weather is forecast on what has usually been middle Sunday.
Elsewhere in that section, 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini won a closely-fought battle against Olympic champion Alexander Zverev and edged two tiebreak sets in a straight-sets result: 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5).
Jabeur needed a jolt, but she’s into round four
- Speaking of incorrect line call challenges, Jabeur’s insistence that a rally ball was out midway through set two saw Andreescu lose focus as the Tunisian fought well during Centre Court return for last year’s runner-up
- After a Friday fightback, Aryna Sabalenka [2] raced past Russia’s Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-3 while fellow French Open semifinalist Beatriz Haddad Maia dropped one game less (6-2, 6-2) in Sorana Cirstea win
- Rybakina vs. Haddad Maia and Jabeur vs. Kvitova among tantalising fourth-round matchups set after yesterday’s results in the bottom half
Ons Jabeur said she had to thank the rain delay for allowing her to speak to her coach, have a better perspective on the match, and refocus after going down a set against 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.
The Canadian, 23 last month, served well and made few errors to kick off an eventful evening’s play on the prime court at SW19, leaving Jabeur frustrated despite dropping just one point behind her first serve during those opening exchanges.
“I didn’t play my best tennis, wanted to be more aggressive… playing a Slam champion and an amazing athlete, she made it tough today.
I love the crowd, the energy and how beautiful it is, hopefully I’ll play more matches here. It was a little bit frustrating, her drop shots and slices were annoying – I know how others feel now.”
- Jabeur reflects on her Centre Court return, Andreescu’s abilities and a desire to keep going further
As mentioned above, she’ll play two-time champion Petra Kvitova in round four to start next week after the ninth seed won 6-3, 7-5 against Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic, ending a memorable main draw Major debut for the 28-year-old.
It goes without saying, the Czech will have to serve better (61% first serve, seven double-faults) and clean up her unforced error count (36) to trouble Jabeur enough, earning promising opportunities with any regularity.
I said it’d be intriguing to see how Elena Rybakina handled the pressure cooker that is Centre Court against a home hopeful, she passed the test with flying colours and didn’t give the crowd much room for encouragement either: 6-1, 6-1 vs. Katie Boulter.
She served brilliantly (seven aces), lost just nine total points behind her serve, dwarfed the 26-year-old in winners (20-7) while having the same amount of unforced errors (14) and looked imperious at the net, taking time away from Britain’s no. 1.
Now though, she’ll have to snap a losing trend if she’s to make it into the quarterfinals: Beatriz Haddad Maia has beaten her in their two H2H meetings, both in the last five months (Abu Dhabi, retired a set and break down in Stuttgart).
Having recovered from a set down in her first two rounds, there was no such worry for the 13th seed against Cirstea as she played clean tennis (11 unforced errors, 67 combined in rounds 1-2) and excelled with forays to the net. How will part three end?
Picture source: Getty Images
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