Carlos Alcaraz remains on course to meet Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final – but the seven-time champion will not be having sleepless nights just yet.
World number one Alcaraz, touted as the only realistic challenger to Djokovic this fortnight, joined the Serbian in the fourth round after beating Nicolas Jarry.
But it took the Spaniard four sets and almost four hours to get past a player who had not played at Wimbledon for four years and before this week had only won one match here.
Chilean Jarry is a player on an upward curve, however, having risen from 152 in the world at the start of the year to a career-high 28.
Nevertheless, it looked like being plain sailing when Alcaraz won his 17th consecutive set with a solitary break.
But in the second-set tie-break, Alcaraz dumped a forehand into the net to drop a set for the first time since he played Arthur Rinderknech in the first round at Queen's last month.
Alcaraz regained the initiative to take the third with a solitary break while Jarry hit the roof – literally – with one particularly wild swing.
Yet the indefatigable Jarry found a second wind and broke again at the start of the fourth, before an incorrect challenge from Alcaraz – who stopped playing only to discover Jarry’s return had clipped the baseline – left him on his haunches in annoyance with himself.
But Alcaraz steadied himself to hit back for 3-4 and then showed why he is the player at the top of the tree with an unstoppable backhand return to break before serving out for a hard-earned 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 7-5 victory.
"It has been really tough, Nicolas is a really great player, he’s playing really well," said Alcaraz. "I’m just really happy with the level I played to get through this tough round.
"I had to stay focused. I knew I would have my chances. I would say the key is to believe and stay focused all the time."
Another day, another ridiculous @carlosalcaraz winner 🔥#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/CZ2GnzHBeK
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2023
Alcaraz will face the dangerous Matteo Berrettini in the last-16 after the Italian beat 19th seed Alexander Zverev 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in a big-hitting thriller on Court One.
A finalist in 2021, the Italian missed last year with an ill-timed bout of Covid after winning the title at Queen’s Club and has been restricted to only eight tournaments so far this season by injury.
"I spent many days in my bed crying about not being able to play so five days in a row is nothing," he said of this year’s scheduling complications.
"I missed playing, I missed competing. It’s so special. I found extra energy every day. I’m so glad that I’m here."
Daniil Medvedev (above) downed Hungary's Marton Fucsovics 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 to match his best ever showing at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round.
A year after being banned from playing at the All England Club following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow-born Medvedev survived a wayward opening set to topple an opponent who had won their only previous meeting at a major.
When the 67th-ranked Fucsovics gave Medvedev the runaround in the opening set, with the Russian misfiring his returns time and again, visions of his 2020 Roland Garros first round win over the third seed must have flashed through his mind.
But Medvedev trampled on those dreams in the fourth game of the second set, when he broke Fucsovics to love after the Hungarian double-faulted to surrender his serve.
Playing under a closed Court One roof as the rain came down on a leafy southwest London, both players entertained the crowd with some acrobatic shot-making.
Fucsovics would have made Boris Becker proud with a couple of his diving volley winners and slam-dunk smashes, while Medvedev hit a stupendous crosscourt winner on the run after chasing down a drop shot from well behind the baseline.
Once Medvedev had taken a two-sets-to-one lead by banging down an unreturnable serve, Fucsovics needed an injury time out to get his right ankle manipulated and strapped up by the trainer.
He got back on his feet and even earned a break point in the eighth game of the fourth set. But once he missed his chance to make it 4-4, his game quickly unravelled and Medvedev reached the last 16 of a major for the first time this year by firing down an ace.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina insisted he had no regrets despite an ill-advised underarm serve virtually handing victory to Holger Rune.
The Spaniard had let an 8-5 lead slip in the deciding first-to-10-point tie-break when, at 8-8, he decided to pull out an underarm serve, which sixth seed Rune easily put away before clinching a 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-4 7-6 (10-8) win on the next point.
Davidovich Fokina was unrepentant, though, calling the shot simply "another serve". Asked if he would make the same decision again, he added: "Why not?"
The 24-year-old, who is ranked 34, insisted he would look back on the match positively, saying: "I won't regret anything.
"I’m happy for this match that I did because I was struggling on grass and how I played today I convinced myself that I have a lot of things in myself."
It is the third time in his last five matches at Wimbledon that Davidovich Fokina has shot himself in the foot with highly questionable decisions.
In a first-round meeting with Hubert Hurkacz 12 months ago, he was 40-0 up serving for the match in the third set when he tried an unnecessary tweener.
Davidovich Fokina did eventually come through that one in a deciding fifth-set tie-break only to lose to Jiri Vesely in another tie-break in the second round when he smashed a ball out of the court while match point down and was given a point penalty.
Rune has had plenty of dramatic moments in grand slams himself this season and has now played a match tie-break at each event – losing to Andrey Rublev in Australia before beating Francisco Cerundolo in Paris.
He certainly was not complaining about Davidovich Fokina’s moment of madness, saying: "I was not expecting for sure that that was going to come.
"Actually it was nice because he was serving unbelievable so I was like, 'OK', it was a chance to get a match point. I had to be fast with the feet. Wow, what a match."
8-8 in the tiebreaker.
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2023
Who expected Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to do an underarm serve? 😯#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/2ki8QOqkXz
Rune next faces either Frances Tiafoe or Grigor Dimitrov, who was leading by two sets to love when rain forced an early end to the day’s play on the outside courts.
Andy Murray's conqueror Stefanos Tsitsipas eased past Laslo Djere in straight sets while Chris Eubanks won three successive tie-breaks to see off Chris O’Connell
