Top seed and World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz continued his quest for his first Wimbledon title with a 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-3 win over Alexandre Muller of France on Friday on the grass courts in London.
The 20-year-old Alcaraz had an uncharacteristic 41 unforced errors against 32 winners but was happy to move on to the third round following the two-hour, 33-minute match.
“I am really, really happy to play here,” Alcaraz, of Spain, said. “It is a really beautiful court. I wanted to enjoy every single second and I think I did.
“I always say that I try to enjoy playing tennis and that I try and make the people enjoy my tennis. For me, it is special to have the love from the people in every country I go. It is the most important thing for me. It is an amazing energy I receive.”
He next will meet No. 25 seed Nicolas Jarry of Chile, who topped Australian Jason Kubler 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Alcaraz moved to 42-4 on the season, and he has 12 career tour titles. A group of competitors are vying to make sure he doesn’t get his 13th at Wimbledon.
Among them are second-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion who sailed through his first two sets before posting a 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over 38-year-old Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Djokovic, 36, had to work hard in the third set before sewing up the match in a tiebreaker against Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion.
“We’re two old guys,” Djokovic said during his oncourt interview. “I respect Stan a lot as a player and love him as a person. I wish him all the best.”
Djokovic had 11 aces among 38 winners while overcoming 26 unforced errors. Wawrinka had just 12 winners against 29 unforced errors.
Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia completed his second-round match against Adrian Mannarino of France. It was suspended for darkness on Thursday with the third set knotted at 4-4, and Medvedev went on to finish with a 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (5) win.
“Not easy to play two different days,” Medvedev said in his news conference. “Four-all, never easy. Straightaway you’re nervous, you don’t want to lose this set because the momentum of the match can change. Happy that I managed to close it out on the tie-break. I feel like I played pretty well from the start today.”
Medvedev will face Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, a four-set winner over Marcos Giron.
Andy Murray felt the challenge of playing on two different days — and lost. The 2013 and 2016 Wimbledon champion, Murray was up two sets to one on Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday when play was stopped for the 11 p.m. curfew. Murray, from Great Britain, appeared to suffer a groin injury at the end of the third set on Thursday, and he couldn’t muster the same level of play Friday against Tsitsipas, the fifth seed.
The Greek went on to win 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
American Christopher Eubanks pulled off the biggest upset of the early matches, ousting local favorite Cameron Norrie 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3) to advance to the third round. Norrie was the 12th seed.
Other second-round winners Friday were sixth-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark, Christopher O’Connell of Australia, Matteo Berrettini of Italy, 19th-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.
The rain in London has played havoc with the schedule this week, with some players still completing second-round matches and others already a round ahead.
Seventh-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev held off Belgium’s David Goffin 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 to reach the round of 16.
In other third-round action on Friday, eighth-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy topped Quentin Halys of France in four sets, and 17th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland defeated 14th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in straight sets. Also moving on were Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Roman Safiullin of Russia.
–Field Level Media
