Carlos Alcaraz begins Wimbledon defence with straight-sets victory

admin admin | 07-02 08:15

Carlos Alcaraz got his Wimbledon title defence off to an encouraging start with a straight-sets victory on centre court.

The 21-year-old Spaniard, seeded third this year, beat Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal 7-6 (3) 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 22 minutes.

Lajal, also 21 but ranked 266 places lower than Alcaraz, took a chunk out of the three-time grand slam winner with a break of serve in the opening set.

But Alcaraz, who last month added the French Open to his Wimbledon and US Open titles, hit straight back and then eased through the gears.

"He played a really good match," said Alcaraz. "Obviously he surprised me a little bit because I hadn't seen him too much.

"He’s young, he’s my age and I’m sure I’m going to see him really soon on the tour and play him more often.

"But I’m really happy to get through and get my first win on centre court this year."

Three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka also won in straight-sets, seeing off Wimbledon debutant Charles Broom.

Broom earned himself a wild card by reaching the final of the Challenger Tour event in Nottingham last month and the outcome might have been different had he managed to win the second set.

But he tightened up at the wrong moment and Wawrinka completed a 6-3 7-5 6-4 victory in an hour and 49 minutes, becoming just the 10th man in the open era to win a singles match here aged 39 or over.

Stan Wawrinka got the better of Charles Broom

Among those cheering on Broom were two friends from his time at college in the United States who flew over on Monday morning, with one of them not even able to stay the night because of work commitments.

"A couple of them came to me before the match," said Broom. "I saw he was wearing an 'I love Charlie Broom’ shirt. I was like, ‘Mate, you have to take that one off. You can’t.’ But he stuck with that one on, which was nice.

"They loved it. Certainly I want to spend some time with them and make them feel like they’ve had a good journey."

This was by far the biggest moment of 26-year-old Broom’s career, and he settled well after a nervous start on Court Two.

He likens his scampering style to former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori, and he began to exert some real pressure on Wawrinka at the beginning of the second set.

He led 3-0 after breaking serve and had four set points, but he could not take any of them, with the occasion proving a bit too much, and a flurry of backhand winners from Wawrinka saw him win five games in a row.

He extended that to eight games at the start of the third set before Broom began a fightback, but Wawrinka served it out convincingly.

Arthur Fery missed out on the chance to become the first British winner on day one of this year's Wimbledon after he lost in five sets to Daniel Altmaier.

World number 247 Fery sailed through the third set 6-1 to move one away from a maiden main-draw victory at the All England Club, but started to struggle physically on Court 16.

A medical timeout in the fourth provided brief respite for the 21-year-old and while the wild card left court before the fifth, it failed to stem the tide and he crashed out 4-6 7-6 (8) 1-6 6-3 6-1.

Fery had sampled Court One last year in a respectable straight-sets defeat on debut to Daniil Medvedev and despite an eventful first set where Altmaier recovered from a nasty slip, the British number 10 edged it after 51 minutes.

An early 3-1 lead was established in the second by Fery, but he was taken to a tie-break and squandered set point with Altmaier able to level up.

The Stanford University graduate recovered to win six of the next seven games to take the third set.

But choppy waters were on the horizon for Fery, with medical timeouts required for both men with Altmaier 2-1 up in the fourth and the German kicked on to clinch victory in three hours and 43 minutes.

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