Carlos Alcaraz raced into the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday as Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka was demolished on her return to Centre Court after a five-year absence.
Alcaraz defeated Australia’s world number 69 Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 6-2 on the back of 42 winners.
The third-seeded Spaniard’s only moments of concern came in the first set when he let slip a 5-2 lead and found himself 5-6 down with Vukic serving for the opener.
However, the three-time major winner steadied the ship to race away to victory against a player who got the better of him in qualifying at the 2020 French Open.
Alcaraz next faces fellow crowd-pleaser Frances Tiafoe, the American player he defeated in five sets in the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open on his way to his first Grand Slam triumph.
“I’m going for him,” said Alcaraz, who is bidding to become just the sixth man after Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles back to back.
“I’m ready to play a really high level of tennis and hopefully take him.”
Tiafoe made the third round by seeing off Borna Coric in straight sets.
Osaka’s goal to improve her grasscourt game will have to wait for at least another 12 months after her Wimbledon comeback stalled in the second round following a 6-4 6-1 walloping by American Emma Navarro that mercifully lasted only 58 minutes. When the four-times Grand Slam champion returned to the tour in January following a 15-month maternity break, top of her wish list was to “do much better on clay and grass”.
Unfortunately for the Japanese superstar, she failed to match even her career-best third-round showings at the French Open and now at Wimbledon.
She put in a rousing performance at Roland Garros as she almost pushed world number one and eventual champion Iga Swiatek over the edge, squandering a match point before perishing in the second round.
A month later, however, her second-round performance under a closed Centre Court roof was as lousy as the British weather as her game fell apart against the American 19th seed after she produced four erratic errors to get broken in the seventh game of the first set.
Navarro did not let her opponent’s status distract her from the job at hand and she kept up the relentless pressure in the second set as she raced into a 3-0 lead.
The popular Japanese player, competing at Wimbledon this week for the first time since 2019, was given a roaring ovation from the crowd when she finally registered a game to avoid a second-set whitewash but that was only a brief reprieve and she bowed out by slapping a forehand long.
As Navarro celebrated her best-ever run at the All England Club, the £143,000 ($182,150) she picked up for reaching the third round here for the first time will be considered small change for a player who is the daughter of an American billionaire.
‘Love and hate’ Eccentric Fabio Fognini of Italy needed a clutch of match points to knock out eighth-seeded Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (1/7), 6-3.
The 37-year-old Fognini, sporting bleach-blond hair, twice served for the match from 5-2 up in the third set before sealing victory over the three-time Grand Slam runner-up in the fourth set. “It just shows why I love and hate this sport,” said Fognini.
Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, came back from dropping the first set and facing two set points in the second to see off Alexandre Muller of France 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 7-5.
Tomas Machac, who had been scheduled to face Andy Murray before the two-time champion withdrew, came back from 0-5 down in the final set to beat lucky loser David Goffin in a tie-break.
World number two and US Open champion Coco Gauff cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni.
“I’m happy with the way I played, could have been cleaner on some points,” said Gauff, who broke her 19-year-old opponent five times.
The American, who made her career breakthrough at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old qualifier in 2019, goes on to face British qualifier Sonay Kartal, the world number 298.
