Taylor Fritz staved off an upset attempt by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain to earn a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory and a spot in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Friday in London.
The fifth-seeded Fritz, who has been battling match interruptions all week, experienced more disruptions in Friday’s match.
With Fritz up 6-4, 2-1 in the second set, play was paused for a medical emergency in the stands. Fritz brought water to the spectator in need during the 4 1/2-minute break.
Not long after the match resumed, play was again suspended as Fritz himself needed medical attention with a cut on his elbow on an acrobatic dive. He also sliced his elbow during his second-round victory over Canada’s Gabriel Diallo.
He returned to clinch the second set at 6-3, but in the third set he faced a persistent Davidovich Fokina, who came out on top in a tiebreak on the strength of 17 winners.
Despite two more play stoppages for further medical treatment for the American, Fritz was back to a more dominant stance in the fourth set to finish off the match. The 27-year-old scorched 17 aces over the four sets, including six in the losing third set.
Davidovich Fokina had 42 unforced errors to 27 for Fritz.
“This is going to sound crazy, but my body is actually feeling better after each match,” said Fritz, who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon for the third time in his career. “I feel like somehow it felt the worst in my first round and it’s getting better.”
No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz ran his winning streak to 21 matches with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.
The two-time defending Wimbledon champion has won 17 straight matches at the All England Club.
Struff had a 13-10 edge in aces as Alcaraz never got his serves fully under control.
“I was suffering in every service game I did today,” Alcaraz said. “Love-30, break points down. It was stressful. He kept pushing me. I kind of survived and I am really happy that I got the break and it was done.”
The Spaniard next faces No. 14 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia.
Rublev came away with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Adrian Mannarino of France, but said the win wasn’t as easy as the score might indicate.
“It was a tough match, especially Adrian … (who is) very tough to play,” Rublev said. “He tries to play crazy, and especially here on grass with the wind it was even tougher. So for this match I knew I’d have to have a lot of patience and wait for my moment, and I did that well today and that’s why I was able to win.”
No. 17 Karen Khachanov of Russia had an 11-9 edge in aces while dispatching Portugal’s Nuno Borges 7-6 (6), 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8).
Crowd favorite Cameron Norrie of Great Britain faced an early battle before coming back strong in the final two sets to beat Italian Mattia Bellucci 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3.
Despite the first-set scare, Norrie was largely dominant in the two-hour-and-28-minutes match, winning 65 percent of the points (43 of 66) behind his first serve and 62 percent (23 of 37) behind his second serve, to go along with 32 unforced errors compared to 54 from Bellucci.
In other play, Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak defeated France’s Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6), Chile’s Nicolas Jarry beat Brazilian Joao Fonseca 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) and Australia’s Jordan Thompson knocked off Italy’s Lucian0 Darderi 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
In second-round matches that were resumed Friday after being suspended by darkness the night before, No. 10 Ben Shelton won the remaining game, finishing the match with an ace to beat Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. Also, Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics and France’s Gael Monfils went one more set Friday, with Fucsovics coming out on top 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
–Field Level Media
