Tallon Greek track has to recognize his superior at Wimbledon in Spanish goldcrest Carlos Alcaraz | Wimbledon

Greek track, who entered the second round of Wimbledon for the first time after his defeat last year against Alexander Zverev, saw plenty of opportunities against the Spanish goldcrest in advance. ,,If you want to hit him on a certain surface, it’s grass. Of all the top 10 players, he is the least on grass. If I can play my game, there will definitely be opportunities and I can definitely handle it. I have a little more competition in my legs on grass,” said the Dutchman in the run-up to the duel with Alcaraz.

In fact, Greek track was of course right about that. The Dutchman has already played ten grass matches while Alcaraz, who impressed earlier this year with wins in Miami and Madrid and reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, only had the opening round of Wimbledon in his legs on grass. He needed five sets against Jan-Lennard Struff.

Nevertheless, Alcaraz regularly showed on the Wimbledon grass why the nineteen-year-old Spaniard is so often referred to as the successor to compatriot Rafael Nadal. Not that Greek track had no chance. On the contrary. However, it was Alcaraz who managed to strike at the right moments against the Dutchman.

For example, in the first set, Greek track gave up its own service with a crucial 4-4 score. It became 5-4 in favor of Alcaraz, after which the Spaniard managed to keep his own service and thus won the first set: 6-4.

In the second set, it was also a tie between Greek track and Alcaraz. A tiebreak had to be involved to get a set winner, but just like in the first set, the Spaniard was there when it had to be. Greek track was unable to take a single point in the tiebreak and with that Alcaraz hit an important mental blow, especially when the Dutchman failed to immediately cash in two break points in the third set.

Greek track thus missed the opportunity to immediately take a 1-0 lead in the third set. Instead, Alcaraz took the lead, which he immediately increased in the second game by breaking Greek track. That seemed to be a crucial moment, were it not for the fact that in the third game Greece track seized the break opportunities with both hands. The concentration at Alcaraz was just as hard to find and let his opponent come back to 2-2.

In the end, the Spaniard did not let it go any further than that. The young man picked himself up while despondency set in at Greek track. Opportunities were no longer taken and Alcaraz won the third set 6-3 and can now take on Oscar Otte. The 25-year-old Greek track is now returning to clay. From 11 July he will make his appearance at the Dutch Open, a challenger tournament in Amersfoort.