Carlos Alcaraz struggled a bit against Ugo Humbert at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships but ultimately avoided having to play another five-setter.
The Spaniard was close to another five-setter because, late in the fourth set, Alcaraz had to save multiple break points to avoid going into the decider. He was able to win the match in the fourth set, which was important as he had already played quite a few sets at SW19 this year.
He had to play five sets against Frances Tiafoe, and that was not ideal for his title chances, even though his record in five-set matches is amazing. After his win over Humbert, he was asked what he thought about his 'concentration problems', which caused him to drop a set or two at this year's Championships.
"Well, I think I stayed at a really high level of focus during the whole match. Only in the third set, it was kind of difficult for me. The second game was love-30 for me, A few points were played with a few mistakes from my side, and then he broke my serve. He started to play better and better. I couldn't find my good rhythm on the serve."
In the set that he dropped against the Frenchman, Alcaraz had a good chance to break early in the set, but he didn't use it. Then he dropped his serve once more en route to a 1-6 set loss, which is fairly strange for Alcaraz.
He doesn't usually lose sets like that often but it was just a strong set from Humbert, as the three-time major winner also explained after the match.
"He was reading me. He was reading my shots really, really well so it was difficult for me to find the solution at that moment, but you know tennis is like this. I increased my intensity and got the win at the end."