Alcaraz Struggles But Overcomes Difficult Jarry Challenge In Four Sets At Wimbledon
Nicolas Jarry nearly beat Carlos Alcaraz earlier this year on clay and he nearly did it again on grass pushing him to four sets but the Spaniard prevailed at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz wasn't quite sure of his grass level leading up to Wimbledon but he quickly proved rather solid on the surface by winning his maiden grass trophy in Queen's. Wimbledon continued the trend of him winning as he smashed Chardy in the 1st round. He followed that up with another solid performance and it was time for a rematch against Jarry.
They played earlier this year in Rio and the Spaniard nearly lost that match but eventually prevailed. Something similar happened in this one as well though he complicated the match far more than he needed to. Even so, Jarry played a really strong match overall and deserves his praise.
The first set was a very interesting one because the players mirrored each other in some ways. Both Jarry and Alcaraz had 3 aces and hit about the same percentage of first serves. They were quite dominant behind the first set and rather shaky on the second serve.
Both opted to be aggressive more times than not resulting in the same number of winners (9) though the only difference was that Alcaraz had two unforced errors less. He also used the only break point in the set he had while Jarry did not. That's it, that was all it took for the Spaniard to win the opening set.
The second one was again very interesting but Jarry played quite a bit better than in the opening set. He took an early 3-0 lead thanks to some spectacular shot-making though Alcaraz found his stroke as well breaking back a few games later.
Eventually, we ended up in the tiebreak and it was a close one. Jarry won 8-6 thanks to his serve mostly because he did serve quite a bit better than Alcaraz which allowed him to impose himself in rallies as he outhit the Spaniard in this one (15 to 10 winners).
The 3rd set was a bit of a regression from the Chilean but mostly it was Alcaraz playing a fair amount better than in the second set. As he nearly won the second, the improved level clearly was enough for him to win the 3rd set which he did behind 11 winners and 5 unforced errors. Jarry remained aggressive but misfired more than Alcaraz having 13 unforced errors and 10 winners.
The 4th set flipped the script once more as Jarry jumped out to an early 3-0 lead that nearly became a double break lead. He was firing from the baseline while Alcaraz struggled, especially with his serve posting 3 double faults in the first two service games he had.
Despite that Alcaraz mounted a comeback and what a comeback it was. Down 1-4, the Spaniard won a couple of games in a row to make it 4-4 and then broke Jarry once more towards the finish of the set to take a 6-5 lead.
He then closed it out 7-5 by demonstrating some of his best tennis of the day in those final few games. The final score was 6-3 6-7(6) 6-3 7-5 for Alcaraz who had 12 aces, 41 winners, and 30 unforced errors. He will face either Matteo Berrettini or Alexander Zverev in the next round.
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