Wimbledon: Gritty Carlos Alcaraz keeps rolling

LONDON: Carlos Alcaraz was racing around the court, covering ground like a hare on steroids. He went back and forth, corner to corner on set point (second set) in his Wimbledon fourth-round match that at one point he had reached so far wide he was doing splits like a gymnast in the middle of a floor routine, going down on the grass. He was back on his feet in time to play the next ball which was wide on his backhand after which he sprinted to the net for a short ball.
Ugo Humbert, the 16th seeded Frenchman, positioned at the net, sent a pickup long to allow the Spaniard to take a two-set lead. Centre Court was on its feet and the defending champion turned to them, raising his index finger as much to salute his own effort as to acknowledge their celebration.
Alcaraz, the third seed, who shut down the challenge of the free-hitting left-hander 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to make his ninth major quarterfinal said he’d have described the sequence as ‘unbelievable’ had he been in the commentary box. He punctuated the description with a smile that lent a sparkle to the grey skies. The lightness of being Carlos Alcaraz.
“I just tried to fight for every ball,” Alcaraz said.
“It doesn’t matter which part of the court I’m in, just giving myself the chance to stay alive in the point. On set point, that was a really important point for me, it didn’t matter what he was going to do, I’m going to be there, fighting until the last ball.”
Alcaraz, a three-time major champion, having already won a Grand Slam on all surfaces, had 45 winners in his near three-hours in the middle.
When the 21-year-old wasn’t rollerblading around the rectangle, slamming winners, he was either trying his distinct range of trick shots or smiling and laughing with fans.
His attitude has charged the tennis landscape, especially the women’s locker-room.
American Coco Gauff took a leaf out of the smiling Spaniard’s book last fall when she turned her season around in stellar fashion, saying, “If he can smile, he has all this pressure, then I can do it too.”
Briton Emma Raducanu said when you watch the Spaniard you want to emulate him on the court.
“The last couple of matches I’ve been following Carlos, it’s just good to watch before your match,” she said.
“In certain moments you try to emulate certain shots.” In another fourth-round clash played under the roof, world No.1 Jannik Sinner stopped big serving American Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (9) to make the quarterfinals.
MADISON KEYS’ RUN ENDS IN HEARTBREAK
After two hours and 23 minutes of action, the Wimbledon fourth-round showdown between the big-hitting Madison Keys and the No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini was evensteven at 5-all in the third set.
So the scoreboard said. Only the 12th-ranked Keys had taken a medical timeout at the changeover (5-4) to attend to her left hamstring, returning to the court with her leg heavily strapped.
Keys, who turned the match around after a dismal first set, clutched her hamstring in the eighth game (5-2) of the decider. It went rapidly downhill from there as the 29-year-old called a stop to her run at SW19 with the score reading 6-3, 6-7 (6) 5-5.
Earlier, Paolini, who hadn’t won a match at Wimbledon until this year, had come within two points of victory in the secondset tiebreak, which she had forced from 5-1 down. In the third set, Paolini trailed 5-2 before mounting another fightback to make the last eight.
“Right now, I’m so sorry for Madison, to end the match like this is bad,” Paolini, the French Open finalist, said. “I’m a little bit happy, but sad for her. In the second and third sets, I was telling myself, hang in there, in tennis you never know. I know she retired, but I’m here with a win.”