Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon hopes hung by a thread on Monday evening. However, the 19-year-old survived to reach the second round at Wimbledon for the second time.
In a tight battle on Court 1, the 19-year-old rode out an attacking bombardment from Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff to advance 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 after a tense four hours and 14 minutes.
Competing for the second time at Wimbledon, Alcaraz raised his intensity and dug his heels in as he scampered around the baseline to hang in points, while he found moments of magic in the key moments to improve his five-set record to 5-1.
The Spaniard produced a stunning backhand passing shot at 0/2 in the fourth-set tie-break to keep himself in the match, before he raised the roof with his shot-making at the end of the fifth set to improve to 1-1 in his ATP Head2Head series with Stuff.
Alcaraz will next play Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Fabio Fognini as he aims to reach the third round at SW19 for the first time.
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