Defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz made a shaky start against unseeded Australian Aleksandar Vukic but moved through the gears to seal a 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2 victory and power into the third round on Wednesday.

The result extended Alcaraz’s winning run at the grasscourt grand slam to nine matches but the Spaniard could face a tricky test in his next match against American 29th seed Frances Tiafoe who beat Borna Coric 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-3.

Fifth seed Daniil Medvedev battled his way to a 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 6-4, 7-5 victory over 102-ranked Alexandre Muller.

Alcaraz, the third seed, broke for a 4-2 lead as Vukic miscued an overhead smash at the net but the Spaniard handed the advantage back to his 69th-ranked opponent three games later and was broken yet again in the opening set to trail 5-6.

He recovered to force a tie-break, where he took a healthy 5-1 lead, but allowed Vukic to win three straight points only to raise his level again and take the set.

From there, it was a ruthless performance from Alcaraz as he racked up 40 winners to blow Vukic away.

Swaggering Italian Fabio Fognini rolled back the years to knock out eighth seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-5, 6-7(1), 6-3.

An early break of serve after a short rain delay was enough for Fognini to take the first set.

He was knocked out of his smooth stride when he suffered a heavy fall on the lush turf but dusted himself down to take the second set.

He appeared to be on the brink of victory against a flat-looking Ruud when he led 5-2, 30-0 in the third set with a double break but twice failed when serving for the match.
Ruud dominated the tiebreak to extend the match but Fognini continued to call the shots in the fourth set.

Gauff in control

Coco Gauff, seeded second, did not look at her imperious best but she was always in control of an error-strewn second-round 6-2, 6-1 victory over Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni to set up a meeting with qualifier Sonay Kartal.

Kartal wowed the home crowd, punching her way to a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over France’s Clara Burel, ranked 253 places above her.

Gauff, the US Open champion slipped and fell twice on the slick court and muttered to herself during the one hour and six minute match against an opponent ranked 140 places below her.

Naomi Osaka’s goal to improve her grasscourt game will have to wait for at least another 12 months after her Wimbledon comeback stalled in the second round following a 6-4, 6-1 walloping by American Emma Navarro.

When the four-times Grand Slam champion returned to the tour in January following a 15-month maternity break, top of her wish list was to “do much better on clay and grass”.

Unfortunately for the Japanese superstar, she failed to match even her career-best third-round showings at the French Open and now at Wimbledon.

Emma Raducanu powered her way into the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Belgian Elise Mertens.

Raducanu looked at the top of her game as she pummelled Mertens into submission from the baseline, shouting and fist-pumping almost every point won.

Bopanna, Ebden up

The Indo-Aussie pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden defeated the Dutch duo of Robin Haase and Sander Arends 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of men’s doubles.

However, Sumit Nagal and his Serbian partner Dusan Lajovic lost 2-6, 2-6 against Spanish pair of Jaume Munar and Pedro Martinez in one hour and seven minutes to bow out of the competition.

Reuters, PTI