Carlos Alcaraz gave an unsparing assessment of his own performance during his rollercoaster five-set win opening round Wimbledon win against Fabio Fognini.<\/p>\n
The five-time Grand Slam champion survived a scare to prevail 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1\u00a0after four hours and 27 minutes in a contest that was far closer than anyone would have predicted.<\/p>\n
The first three sets were highly competitive as an off-colour Alcaraz<\/a> was pushed hard by a Fognini who produced his best display in recent years.<\/p>\n As Alcaraz\u2019s struggles continued, Fognini stormed to take the fourth set without facing a break point as he forced a decider.<\/p>\n The jeopardy of a fifth set focused Alcaraz as he surged to a 3-0 lead that became 5-0 after a delay for a medical emergency in the crowd, before sealing the win.<\/p>\n During the second set tiebreak he lost, Alcaraz was heard saying: \u201cI can\u2019t serve and I can\u2019t return. Shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcaraz\u2019s victory preserved his unbeaten record in the opening round of Grand Slams and\u00a0improved his five-set match record to an incredible 14-1.<\/p>\n Fognini, who was making his final Wimbledon appearance in what is his last year on tour, received a standing ovation from the crowd and was applauded by Alcaraz.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old Italian, a former world No 9, was playing Wimbledon<\/a> for the 15th time.<\/p>\n Alcaraz, who is the two-time defending Wimbledon champion, has now won 19 consecutive matches in a run that features titles in Rome, at the French Open, and at the Queen\u2019s Club Championships.<\/p>\n This was just the third time in the Open Era where a defending men\u2019s singles champion at Wimbledon played a five-setter in the opening match of their title defence.<\/p>\n In the other two, Bjorn Borg beat Victor Amaya in 1978, while Roger Federer overcame Alejandro Falla in 2010.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic vs Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz to defend his crown? \u2013 our Wimbledon men\u2019s predictions<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Very happy\u2019 Joao Fonseca handles his nerves in sublime SW19 debut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In his on-court interview, Alcaraz paid tribute to Fognini: \u201cWell, first of all, to be honest I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s his last Wimbledon because the level he has shown, he can still play three, four more years (laughs). Unbelievable.<\/p>\n \u201cI just have to give him the credit of such a great match. Fabio is a great player, he has shown during his whole career the level and the talent he has. Once again he has shown today.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just a little bit sad it\u2019s his last Wimbledon, but just happy to have lived and shared the court many times with him, the locker room with him, and we\u2019re gonna enjoy the last of him.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how he would assess his own performance, Alcaraz said: \u201cWell, playing the first match of the Centre Court, the first match of every tournament is never easy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been practising well, I\u2019ve been playing on grass really well, but at Wimbledon it\u2019s special, it\u2019s different and I could feel the difference between Wimbledon and the other tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cI just tried to play my best, to deal with the nerves the best that I could, but I would say I can be better. I have to improve in the next round, I just want to be better. But in general, I think it was a great match.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Andy Roddick makes \u2018absurd\u2019 Novak Djokovic Wimbledon comment: \u2018We don\u2019t talk about it enough\u2019<\/a> The post Carlos Alcaraz issues scathing eight-word verdict as he survives Fabio Fognini Wimbledon thriller<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz gave an unsparing assessment of his own performance during his rollercoaster five-set win opening round Wimbledon win against Fabio Fognini. The five-time Grand Slam champion survived a scare to prevail 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1\u00a0after four hours and 27 minutes in a contest that was far closer than anyone would have predicted. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wimbledon News<\/h2>\n
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