Carlos Alcaraz survived Frances Tiafoe’s scare in a hard-fought battle. Tiafoe played a great match until late in the fourth set, when he was stunned in the tiebreak. Then, he couldn’t recover, and he also got mentally and physically too tired in the fifth set.
Alcaraz was down two sets to one, but he had been in this position at the French Open against Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev, so he would have been confident of winning again. If you’re going to beat Carlos Alcaraz in a Slam, you have to do it in three or four sets because he gets stronger the longer the match goes on. His five-set record is insanely impressive.
Tiafoe Pushed Alcaraz To The Limit
Frances Tiafoe is a big-match player. He can be in bad form but then show up at his best level when he plays on Centre Court against the best players. It was a valiant effort from the American player, who hasn’t been good in the past year, but when he wakes up and focuses on a match, he’s quite formidable. Tiafoe came to play and returned brilliantly for the first four sets, rattling Alcaraz. Unfortunately for him, Alcaraz raised his level exactly when he needed to at different moments in the match. This performance should give Tiafoe the confidence to turn around his subpar season.
Tiafoe legitimately beat Alcaraz in the first set with some excellent tennis, but Alcaraz beat himself in the third set and gifted the set to Tiafoe. The Spaniard was careless in the sixth game of the third set when he could have broken if he had been more dialed in. Alcaraz’s intensity was off in the first three sets, and they looked pissed on many occasions. His forehand quality was down significantly, and he was making horrible challenges.
But, at 4-4 and 0-30 in the fourth set, Alcaraz proved his mental prowess again to escape the jail. He then played an incredible tiebreak, where Tiafoe didn’t do anything wrong. It was all about Alcaraz producing some extremely high-level tennis. Everything started to go Alcaraz’s way in the fifth set, including the challenges. Tiafoe also looked flat in the deciding set, while Alcaraz kept increasing his level. Alcaraz unlocks new levels to his game in clutch moments, and it’s crazy how consistently he does that.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – USA TODAY Sports
