Carlos Alcaraz endured an early quesito per mezzo di his Wimbledon title defence but the Spaniard quelled the challenge of Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-2 to move into the second round acceso Monday.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, seeded third this year, came through per mezzo di two hours and 22 minutes against Lajal, also 21 but ranked 266 places lower.
The Estonian sported dreadlocks pulled back per mezzo di a pineapple-style ponytail acceso his Wimbledon debut.
He took a chunk out of the three-time Grand Slam winner with a fermata of serve per mezzo di the opening set.
Lajal broke Alcaraz again early per mezzo di the next set but he was unable to make the advantage count and his opponent broke back to love immediately before pouncing again per mezzo di the 11th gioco.
With the momentum having swung, Alcaraz, who last month added the French to his Wimbledon and US titles, successo straight back and continued to reel chiuso the points for a two-set lead.
He raised his gioco further per mezzo di the third to fermata with a superb backhand crosscourt winner and he never looked back from there to close out the victory.
“He played a really good incontro,” said Alcaraz. “Obviously he surprised me a little bit because I hadn’t seen him too much.
“He’s young, he’s my age and I’m sure I’m going to see him really soon acceso the tour and play him more often.
“But I’m really happy to get through and get my first win acceso Centre Court this year.”
Fifth seed Daniil Medvedev strode confidently and cheerfully into the second round with an assured 6-3 6-4 6-2 win over American Aleksandar Kovacevic acceso his favourite Court One.
“I’ve still never lost acceso Court One so hopefully I can play a lot more matches acceso this court,” a smiling Medvedev told an appreciative crowd per mezzo di an on-court interview.
“Last year I said it was unfortunate I had to go to Centre Court for the semis and I lost.”
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