Carlos Alcaraz raced into the Wimbledon third spherical on Wednesday to arrange a mouth-watering duel with fellow crowd-pleaser Frances Tiafoe as Japanese celebrity Naomi Osaka returned to Centre Courtroom for the primary time in 5 years. Alcaraz defeated Australia’s world quantity 69 Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 6-2 on the again of 42 winners. The third-seeded Spaniard’s solely moments of concern got here within the first set when he let slip a 5-2 lead and located himself 5-6 down with Vukic serving for the opener.

Nevertheless, the three-time main winner steadied the ship to race away to victory in opposition to a participant who acquired the higher of him in qualifying on the 2020 French Open. 

Alcaraz subsequent faces Tiafoe, the American participant he defeated in 5 units within the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open on his approach to his first Grand Slam triumph.

“I am going for him,” mentioned Alcaraz, who’s bidding to grow to be simply the sixth man after Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles again to again.

“I am able to play a very excessive degree of tennis and hopefully take him.”

Tiafoe made the third spherical by seeing off Borna Coric in straight units.

‘Love and hate’

Eccentric Fabio Fognini of Italy wanted a clutch of match factors 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 within the third set earlier than sealing victory over the three-time Grand Slam runner-up within the fourth set.

“It simply exhibits why I like and hate this sport,” mentioned Fognini.

Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, got here again from dropping the primary set and going through two set factors within the second to see off Alexandre Muller of France 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 7-5.

World quantity two and US Open champion Coco Gauff cruised into the third spherical with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni.

“I am proud of the way in which I performed, may have been cleaner on some factors,” mentioned Gauff, who broke her 19-year-old opponent 5 instances.

The American, who made her profession breakthrough at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old qualifier in 2019, goes on to face British qualifier Sonay Kartal, the world quantity 298.

The final time four-time main winner Osaka appeared on Centre Courtroom was in 2019 when she was second seed however was dumped out within the first spherical by Yulia Putintseva.

5 years on, she is ranked at 113 having solely returned to the tour in January after giving beginning to daughter Shai in July final yr.

All-Italian combat

Osaka’s win over Diane Parry within the first spherical was her first at Wimbledon since 2018.

The Japanese star takes on America’s Seventeenth-ranked Emma Navarro, who arrived in London on the again of a semi-final run on the Dangerous Homburg grass-court event.

Later Wednesday, world primary Jannik Sinner will tackle Italian compatriot and former runner-up Matteo Berrettini.

Italian males’s tennis has hardly ever been stronger, with the nation boasting 5 gamers within the high 50 whereas the nation swept to Davis Cup glory final season.

Ten Italian males began the singles event this yr at Wimbledon.

Sinner was the primary Italian man to seize a Grand Slam title together with his victory on the Australian Open in January and was additionally the primary from his nation to grow to be world primary.

“I really feel like in Italy we now have so many tournaments, beginning with juniors, then the Futures and Challengers,” mentioned 22-year-old Sinner.

“Now we have massive, massive ATP tournaments there. Now we have good amenities and nice coaches.”

Berrettini can boast his personal breakthrough Italian second when he was the primary to make a Wimbledon males’s ultimate in 2021.

Sinner made the semi-finals on the All England Membership final yr the place he was defeated by Djokovic.

There may very well be a memorable day for Chinese language tennis with teenager Shang Juncheng taking over Tenth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov and thirty second seed Zhang Zhizhen going through Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.

Till Monday, no Chinese language man had received a match at Wimbledon within the Open period.

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