Up first on a sweltering day in West London we had Jiri Lehecka against Canada’s Gabriel Diallo. Not wasting any time, Lehecka had this one wrapped up in an hour and five minutes, which you would imagine is exactly what he would have wanted in the 30 degree heat. In the first set, the 23 year old Czech needed just the one break to get himself to 6-4. Lehecka then steamed through to a 4-0 lead in the second set, eventually winning it 6-2. It was a polished performance from the Czech, converting 3/3 break points and reaching a very impressive 96% win percentage on his first serve.
The second match on Centre Court today was British Jacob Fearnley against French Corentin Moutet, who defeated Taylor Fritz in the first round in a highly entertaining 3-set and three hour contest. Fearnley got the breakthrough early on to get himself a 3-0 lead. The Frenchman got himself back in it with a break of serve, but Fearnley replied by restoring his break advantage. At 5-3, Fearnley served for the set, and finished it off with just over 30 minutes on the clock. In the 2nd set, Moutet took an early break of his opponent’s serve for 2-0, and it looked like Moutet might run away with it. Fearnley held strong to keep himself in it though, but the single break was enough for Moutet to win the set 6-2. Into a final set, the Brit got himself back in front in the match when, after several attempts, he converted a break point for 2-1. Fearnley compounded his lead with a fantastic volley to get a second break, and with a 4-1 lead the quarter-finals were in sight. A focused performance from Fearnley finished in a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory which sets up a quarter-final with Jiri Lehecka.
The third match on Centre Court was a mammoth 3 hour 23 minute long all-Spanish contest between Carlos Alcaraz and Jaume Munar. The first set went as expected, with Alcaraz showing his quality and why he is the top seed - only one break was needed for him to win the set 6-4. In the 2nd set, both players went toe to toe as mistakes began to creep into Alcaraz’s game, whilst Munar upped his level. From 5-4, each game was a long drawn out tug-of-deuces, but with neither player being able to convert their break points, we went to a tiebreak. On match point at 6-4, Alcaraz double-faulted and Munar took his lifeline and won the set, taking the tie break 9-7. In the 3rd set, it looked like Alcaraz might push on when he broke serve for 2-0, but once again Munar fought back and recovered the break . Having won four games in a row, Munar was then a break up with a 4-2 lead in the decider. You always felt Alcaraz would get his moment though, and he crucially broke back to make it 4-4 . The 5 time slam champion then made his move when Munar was serving to stay in the match, and Alcaraz came out the 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 winner. Credit to both players for maintaining such a high level in tough conditions for a marathon of a match.
The final match to be played was Reilly Opelka versus Arthur Rinderknech, but with the above match going late into the evening, this was moved to court 1.
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