Carlos Alcaraz has matched a milestone achieved by his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero following his latest win at Wimbledon on Sunday.
The defending champion battled his way to a 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, win over France’s Ugo Humbert who was the first left-handed player he had faced in this year’s tournament. His latest display at The All England Club saw the Spaniard fire 44 winners against 33 unforced errors as he broke his rival six times. He has now won 15 matches at Wimbledon so far in his career against just two losses.
As the rain poured down onto the Center Court roof, Alcaraz was able to dictate play with the help of some thunderous hitting that put world No.16 Humbert under intense pressure. The Frenchman did produce glimmers of the tennis that have seen him score a trio of top 10 wins by breaking his rival four times in a row at one stage. However, that wasn’t enough to derail the third seed in what was their first tour-level meeting.
“Playing lefties is always tricky, no matter the surface.” Said Alcaraz.
“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.”
Storming through the first set in a relatively comfortable fashion, Alcaraz’s first big test occurred during the early stages of the second frame. A marathon five-deuce service game saw him fend off a quartet of break points before holding to nudge ahead 3-2. Then at 5-4, he snatched the second set by displaying some sublime defensive skills during a lengthy rally where he slipped over midway through before a Humbert shot landed out.
“Unbelievable I guess,” Alcaraz said of that second set point. “I mean I just (laughs) I just tried to fight every ball, every point. Doesn’t matter which part of the court I am.
“I just try to run and give myself the chance to stay alive in the point. But even more important is like this one, set point is a really important point for me so I had to show the opponent that it doesn’t matter if he’s gonna shoot, that I’m gonna be there.
“That’s myself, fighting until the last ball. Sometimes it’s a pretty good point like this one, sometimes I lose it.”
There were still challenges for Alcaraz to overcome with him dropping serve for the first time in the third set and at one point he was shaking his right arm which was presumable due to tension. Meanwhile, Humbert capitalised on the opportunity to run away with the lead and out of nowhere took the fourth set.
Despite the blip, Alcaraz edged his way to victory whilst being visibly frustrated with areas of his game. It is the sixth major tournament in a row where he has reached at least the last eight.
“I just choose the shot when I am going to hit it. I don’t think about it beforehand.” He later commented about his game.
“I like the forehand drop shot, passing shot from the forehand or the lob tweener, that is my favourite shot so I try to find that in every match.”
Overall, it is the ninth time Alcaraz has reached the quarter-final of a Grand Slam event which is the same amount as his mentor Ferrero reached throughout his career. However, he has a long way to go to beat the record held by a Spanish payer which is Rafael Nadal’s tally of 47.
Alcaraz, who has won 30 matches so far this season, will next take on either Queen’s champion Tommy Paul or fellow countryman Roberto Bautista Agut.
