Carlos Alcaraz sends message to Novak Djokovic after Wimbledon win | Tennis | Sport

Carlos Alcaraz proved to his rivals that he can win in any way necessary as he claimed a 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-1 victory over Aleksandar Vukic on No. 1 Court at Wimbledon. The defending champion has a target on his back this year and his Australian opponent came out fighting, but kept coming up without the necessary answer.

The first set was Alcaraz’s trickiest and he threatened to go a set down after being broken at love when serving for the set, but used his entire range of weaponry available to get past his battling world No. 69 opponent.

However, from that point on, Alcaraz was comfortable and as the match wore on and the amount of effort Vukic was expending to keep Alcaraz within arm’s length grew, he could not keep up and took just four matches in the following two sets.

Sat in Vukic’s box there were plenty of uncomfortable faces as their man had no way of response, on serve or returning, for the sheer quality that Alcaraz.

Whether as a frontrunner or forced to claw and battle his way into proceedings, Alcaraz proved once again to Novak Djokovic that he has no issue playing ‘ugly’ and will respond to anything that is thrown at him at SW19, which he did to beat the Serb in last year’s final.

Dominating his way to a comfortable win in the final match, four consecutive aces brought the entire court to his feet in the knowledge that a back-to-back champion could be on his way.

Victory for Alcaraz sets up a third-round clash with America’s Frances Tiafoe, who overcame Borna Coric and Matteo Arnaldi in his opening two rounds.

Alcaraz applauded his opponent off the court before telling the crowd: “I am really happy for my performance today, the level that i played, in the first set it was the key for me to match, it was really close but after that I think I played a really good tiebreak, second and third set I played a high level so I am really happy about it.

“It was difficult for me to close the set, for him he was going to be the same, I had to be there to put a few returns to him, winners, it was a really good for me in a tough time. In those situations you have to increase your level, be aggressive, that’s all I thought in that situation and it was really helpful for me.”

When told that Tiafoe was “coming for him” in their next match, Alcaraz smiled and had a very clear response. “I am going for him,” the 21-year-old said after the Wimbledon crowd jeered Tiafoe’s name.

“We played a great match at the US Open, I know he is a talented player, one of the top on grass with his style, good touch, slice volley, it’s going to be a difficult match for me but I am ready to make that challenge, to play a really high level of tennis and hopefully take it.”