Having the strength to win despite the continuous ups and downs and save yourself on a bad day is one of the main qualities that differentiate a champion from a good player. Carlos Alcaraz is definitely in the first category of tennis players, because today he literally opposed a fate that seemed to want at all costs to stage the biggest surprise of the tournament and exclude prematurely the man able to triumph last year.

The Spaniard found himself under two sets to one against one unleashed Frances Tiafoe and reversed the fate in the tie-break of the fourth acting as a phenomenon. Alcaraz was at times unrecognizable – perhaps he suffered some physical problems – but he never mentally let go and defeated Tiafoe with the score of 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6( 2), 6-2.

Tiafoe put Carlos Alcaraz in trouble

Breathless but ahead of a break in the first set, Carlos Alcaraz lost the way and suffered the immediate 4-2 break against beginning to falter. Always forced to chase in batting, the Spaniard gave up the pace on 5-5 and allowed Tiafoe to take the lead.

In the middle of the second set he then raised the level and brekkato twice in a row the American also hitting an extraordinary passer on the set point. In the third, however, the situation has changed again and Alcaraz has fallen back into darkness.

The 21-year-old erased three break balls in the opening, but attempted a complicated Tweener on the chance offered to Tiafoe on the 3-3. The American thanked and, without hesitation, filed the set. It was the tie-break of the fourth half to reopen the games and put back in the race Alcaraz; tie-break revealed one-way.

The message came loud and clear in the first minutes of the decisive set, because Alcaraz has done nothing wrong and stopped Tiafoe in two circumstances imposing himself with another exceptional passer and a wonderful drop shot on 1-1 and 3-1.

“Today I had to find solutions to put him in trouble, I only thought about fighting for the next ball, until in the tiebreak of the fourth set I said: ‘I have to go for it’. I once hit with that tactic, so this time also fell from my side” – Alcaraz said.

Iga Swiatek acknowledges there is always a bit of extra pressure when you enter a big tournament on a notable winning streak but adds that she has nothing to prove because her streak started on clay, which is a completely different surface compared to grass.

After finishing her clay season with three consecutive titles at the French Open and WTA 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, Swiatek also won her opening two Wimbledon matches to improve to 21 wins in a row. At the start of the week, Swiatek overcame a tricky opener when she beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin before ousting Petra Martic 6-4 6-3 to reach the third round at The Championships.

Since the 23-year-old Pole has been playing lights out over the last two months, many wonder if this will also be the year she makes her big Wimbledon breakthrough and wins her first grass title.

“It’s not the first time that I’m going into this tournament with a streak. It’s not that easy having this kind of baggage on your shoulders but this year it feels different because I don’t feel like everybody is focusing on it,” Swiatek noted.

“I’m playing on a different surface, I have different challenges here and I’m focusing on them and not the statistics. I want to get better here, on grass, so that’s my main goal – I don’t feel like I need to prove anything because it’s a totally different story. I’m starting with a blank space and just going with it.”

In her next match, Swiatek plays against world No. 35 Yulia Putintseva, against whom she has a perfect 4-0 head-to-head record. However, it should be noted that none of their past meetings came on grass.

Do you remember Swiatek’s astonishing winning streak that ended at 2022 Wimbledon?

After winning Doha in 2022 February, Swiatek also claimed titles in her next five tournaments and she entered Wimbledon that year on an outstanding 35-match winning streak. Even though Swiatek was unproven on grass at the time, many were warning that she should not be taken for granted while some also believed there was a big chance of her streak coming to an end at The Championships.

And two years ago, the Pole started her Wimbledon run by winning her first two matches. But then, her streak ended at 37 consecutive wins after Alize Cornet upset her in two sets.

But after the 2022 grass season didn’t go that well for Swiatek, she made the Bad Homburg semifinal last year and also reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Now, the top-ranked Pole has made a good start to Wimbledon, and although she has low expectations, she believes she is serving better this year and hopes something good can come out of this.

“I think I’m serving much better than in previous years, and this is for sure helpful. I feel like I am doing progress [on grass], especially on the practice court. Now my goal is to implement it in matches and I feel like it should be easier and easier in every match, but I have really low expectations, I’m just focusing on the work, and the results will come after,” Swiatek explained.

Swiatek made one thing clear at the start of Wimbledon

Just like in previous years, Swiatek again heard some people claiming that she was not even a favorite for the Wimbledon title. Addressing that before the start of her run at The All England Club, the five-time Grand Slam champion highlighted that she reached the point where she is never considered “an underdog.”

“It’s hard for me to be considered as an underdog anywhere now, but I really need to focus on just the process of being a better player here and learning how to play the best kind of tennis and not really on the rankings or the expectations that come with my ranking,” Swiatek noted.

Also, Swiatek explained why Wimbledon is a specific Slam and how improving on the go can be the key to winning the most prestigious tournament in the world.

“I feel like it’s a really tricky tournament. It’s not like you can build up your shape and then, I don’t know, peak at Wimbledon,” Swiatek explained.

“There aren’t so many tournaments on grass. Players that are also sometimes underdogs can win it, I feel. The chance is bigger. I guess it comes down more to the mental side, I would say, how you’re going to be able to adjust to this surface. The player that does it better is going to win.”

It’s been one of the most debated topics in the last few weeks. A topic that has made Carlos Alcaraz impatient. Is making Tennis faster with the implementation of the countdown for the service a viable way to improve its fluidity? After the defeat against Jack Draper, the former World number one had said his, expressing his total disappointment: “This new rule is absurd and harmful to players.

When I finish the goal point, I don’t even have time to go and retrieve the ball to beat. I’m not talking about getting towels, but about the fact that we don’t even have time to catch the ball after a trade”.

Toni Nadal also spoke about it in the last hours to El Pàis: “The work of the referees is practically reduced to that of simple points counters”. A new rule that provides only 25 seconds of margin between the end of the point and the beginning of the next. Why was it devised? ” Probably to catch the attention of the new generations, whose attention threshold is always lower.

It doesn’t make much sense that players have the same amount of time after an ace and after a long and intense exchange,” he said.

Carlos Alcaraz complained a lot

Carlos Alcaraz complained a lot during the match against Draper at the Queen’s Club.

This decision somewhat repudiates the work of the judges of the chair, whose contribution to the game is reduced to the maximum, turning them almost into robots: “Race officials have the mission and responsibility to direct the direction their sport must take in order not to lose its essence, to adapt to the new times and to maintain, if not increase, its spectacular nature.

And the popularity of our sport often depends on the correctness of their decisions. The work of the referees is practically reduced to that of simple points counters,” he said. The solution for Toni is: “What you should try to get is to increase the percentage of time the ball is in play and that there are long exchanges where players have to use different tricks and abilities to win them. These are the kind of fights that also attract long applause from the audience,” he concluded.

Ons Jabeur made one heartbreaking admission during her Wimbledon press conference as the 29-year-old Tunisian says she has “accepted” that knee pain will always be there and that it will be something that will plague her for the remainder of her career.

In early 2023, Jabeur was hampered by a knee injury, and after an early Australian Open exit, she had a minor procedure on her knee in February.

But a year and a half later, three-time Grand Slam finalist Jabeur is still being bothered by the same issue and that has been one of the reasons why she hasn’t won any titles this year and hasn’t had the results she would like.

“I just have accepted that I’ll always have knee pain. Maybe you see me running good on court but sometimes it’s tougher than other days. I’m very disciplined wish my exercises. I know if I skip one day, the exercises won’t help me at all. That’s why I try to be cautious about it. Definitely it’s part of me right now. A big part of it is accepting that I’ll always have knee pain,” Jabeur said.

Jabeur’s admission comes just before her Wimbledon third-round match, in which she will be facing last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist Elina Svitolina.

Jabeur doing well at Wimbledon, explains her partnership with Fernando Verdasco

On the brighter part, Jabeur has at least been able to start her Wimbledon run with back-to-back straight sets wins over Mojuka Uchijima and Robin Montgomery.

And amid her hopes to make her third consecutive Wimbledon final, Jabeur added former Australian Open semifinalist and top-10 player Fernando Verdasco to her staff.

“His player got injured… so I asked him if he could stay with me. Love his energy. Love his attitude. Love the way he talks to me in Spanish. I don’t even understand what he’s sayings sometimes, but it sounds good. I was always curious about the perspective from a player to a player,” Jabeur explained.

“Sometimes I ask him questions like ‘what do you feel in this certain moment?’ I feel like we are connected in a way. I love working with people that love to work with me just to really help me. Sometimes that’s really tough to find. He has a good connection with my coach. It really helps us as a team.”

Another piece of the Fab 4 is about to say goodbye to tennis: on a moving, endless London afternoon in midsummer, Andy Murray received the embrace of Wimbledon Centre Court, caressed by the sweet words of his friends/rivals, by the tears of his mother Judy and his wife Kim and by the applause of the crowd. The video message that Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic sent was one of the peaks reached at Wimbledon 2024, in terms of emotions. Perhaps one of the most touching moments in the history of recent sport. If Novak Djokovic – together with other tennis players and former tennis players such as Iga Swiatek and John McEnroe was on the court – Federer was not present at the Centre Court during and after the Murray brothers’ match.

Federer, as he himself revealed in an interview with Chris McKendry for ESPN, arrived at the All England Club before the match, meeting Murray inside the corridors of Centre Court before the Scot stepped onto the most famous tennis lawn in the world. And the Swiss’s words express a beautiful message to Murray.

“Andy was there for my retirement at the Laver Cup. I enjoyed playing against him even though he beat me probably 20 times, and obviously I was emotional yesterday. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there last night. I went quickly to see him before the match. I could see that Andy was extremely nervous and thoughtful at that precise moment. Obviously Wimbledon means a lot to him, his family and his team. I watched all the highlights and thought: this is incredible for him. There will be more to come in the mixed and also at the Olympics. Then I think for him it’s everything. He was there for my retirement at the Laver Cup. I was so happy that he was there. I hope to see Andy. What an incredible career. I enjoyed playing against him even though he beat me probably 20 times. It was amazing. Obviously I was emotional yesterday too. I wish I could have been there last night, but I already had commitments because I didn’t know how it was going to end. I actually took an earlier flight on Tuesday to be here in case he played his singles. As I was getting on the flight, I learned that Andy was not playing his singles. I thought: Oh my God. I was waiting,” said Roger.

The Swiss then talked about Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon 2023, noting how incredible it was. Roger hopes that Alcaraz and new ATP No.1 Jannik Sinner will play each other many times, hoping that theirs can become a great rivalry.

“I’ve played with Novak here. I know how difficult it is to beat him. For Carlos to do it at 20 years old was incredible. And Sinner, how he’s progressed in the last two years, I really like him. I see him continuing. Which means they’ll both meet, hopefully, many times. It’s going to be a great rivalry. The guys are doing so well. Alcaraz at Roland Garros was fantastic. His victory here last year was incredible against Novak in that 5 set,” explained teh Swiss.

As mentioned, Andy played one of his last matches yesterday on the prestigious lawns of the All England Club, in doubles with his brother Jamie, but he failed to overcome the Australian doubles Peers-Hijikata. The Scot will also play mixed doubles with Emma Raducanu, in one of the most anticipated matches by the Wimbledon crowd and tennis fans. The ceremony organized by the board of the London Major for him, on the Centre Court, moved him deeply, as it moved deeply.
The Scotsman, in a press conference, tried to analyze the emotions he felt.

“Watching the video with Venus, Roger, Rafa and Nole was beautiful, but also very difficult because you know that something you have loved to do for so long is about to end. I really appreciated that in that time some of the best players in the history of this sport were there to see me. People for whom I have enormous respect. I did not expect my daughters to come too. When we were waiting in the locker room, I saw on one of the TVs that they were sitting there with my wife. It was beautiful. I thank everyone. I am ready to stop playing because I can no longer play at the level that I would like to.

If I knew that my body was capable of doing it, I would play forever because there is nothing in this sport that I hate that tells me that I do not want to continue doing it for this reason. I love to travel. I love the competition, training, trying to improve, all of these things, but today, even though it was a doubles match, where it is not so physically demanding, it was still very hard for me. There are things in my career that I am very proud of. I certainly didn’t do everything right, but I was always able to train the next day with the same dedication, work ethic and passion as the day before, regardless of the ups and downs that the sport threw at me,” explained Murray.