LONDON: Carlos Alcaraz found himself pushed to a Grand Slam fifth set again, this time at Wimbledon, this time against good pal Frances Tiafoe. And as he usually does under such circumstances, no matter how much trouble he might have been in, Alcaraz surged to the finish.
Alcaraz avoided a surprising exit and got past Tiafoe 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 on Friday to reach Wimbledon’s fourth round in an entertaining match filled with moments of brilliance and a series of momentum swings across its 3 hours, 50 minutes.
“It’s always a big challenge playing against Frances. As I’ve said many, many times, he’s a really talented player. Really tough to face. And he showed it once again,” Alcaraz said. “It was really, really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions, to try to put him in trouble. But really happy to do it at the end.”
In front of a Center Court crowd that included Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, and under a closed retractable roof that amplified the thuds of rackets-on-balls, grunts and cheers, the third-seeded Alcaraz was outplayed for stretches by No. 29 Tiafoe.
But Alcaraz was better at the business end and improved to 12-1 in his nascent career in fifth sets — including victories in the semifinals and final at the French Open after being down 2-1 in sets en route to the title there last month. Tiafoe fell to 6-13 in five-setters.
Tiafoe was unable to pull out what would have been a surprising victory for someone who arrived at Wimbledon with a sprained ligament in his right knee and a losing record this season.
Sure came close, though.
The 26-year-old American was two points away from getting the chance to serve for the win, getting to love-30 on Alcaraz’s serve at 4-all in the fourth set. But Alcaraz steadied himself and claimed the next four points, capped by an ace at 130 mph (210 kph).
He then dominated the ensuing tiebreaker, grabbing a 5-0 lead.
“I served (at) a lot of difficult moments during the fourth set. ... All I was thinking is: ‘OK, fight one more ball, one more ball.’ Thinking about the next point,” Alcaraz said. “And obviously in the tiebreak, I always tell myself that I have to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it, but I have to feel that I went for it all the time.”
The final set featured more one-way traffic. Tiafoe held in the opening game, but that was pretty much that. At 1-all, Alcaraz got the last break he would need by smacking a cross-court backhand passing shot that Tiafoe let fly by; the ball landed right at the baseline, spraying a bit of chalk.
Others into the fourth round with victories on a rainy day were reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff, French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini, No. 19 Emma Navarro — the American who eliminated Naomi Osaka earlier in the week — and 2017 US Open finalist Madison Keys in the women’s bracket, and No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 12 Tommy Paul in the men’s.
Gauff, who is seeded No. 2, will face Navarro in an all-American matchup for a quarterfinal berth.
Most of the attention Friday was on Alcaraz and Tiafoe, two known for providing a show. Alcaraz delivered on-the-run, back-to-the-net ‘tweeners and pointed to his ear to ask spectators for more noise; Tiafoe interacted with the fans, too, waving to them to get louder.
These two good-naturedly traded some mild trash talk when they found out they’d be facing each other, and they hugged and chatted at the net when it was over.
Tiafoe stopped playing during a match last month at the Queen’s Club event after hurting his knee, and was just 13-14 in 2024 before Wimbledon, with some of those losses coming against players he referred to as “clowns,” without naming names.
After Tiafoe, who wore a black sleeve on his right knee, slipped and went down to the ground a couple of times Friday, Alcaraz walked around the net to the other side of the court to check on him or offer a hand to help him get to his feet.
There were fewer of the sorts of lengthy, extended exchanges they engaged in at Flushing Meadows a little less than two years ago — when Alcaraz defeated Tiafoe in a five-setter in the US Open semifinals — mostly owing to the speedier grass that tends to end points quickly. Still, there was shared excellence aplenty, including a 22-stroke point that Alcaraz won to help lead 4-2 in the first set.
Tiafoe broke right back and soon owned that set. Alcaraz righted himself in the second. Then it was Tiafoe’s turn to play better in the third. And, ultimately, it was Alcaraz who emerged.
Now Alcaraz will continue to pursue a second consecutive title at the All England Club and his fourth Grand Slam trophy overall, including the recent triumph in Paris that made the 21-year-old Spaniard the youngest man to win a major championship on all three surfaces.
Defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz comes back to beat Frances Tiafoe in the third round
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Defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz comes back to beat Frances Tiafoe in the third round
- Alcaraz avoided a surprising exit and got past Tiafoe 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2
- “It’s always a big challenge playing against Frances. As I’ve said many, many times, he’s a really talented player,” Alcaraz said
‘Hate it’: Tien beats friend to set-up NextGen final against Fonseca
- Sunday’s final will feature the two youngest players in the eight-man field with Fonseca having the advantage of already beating Tien
JEDDAH: Learner Tien defeated close friend Alex Michelsen to reach the NextGen ATP Finals title match on Saturday but admitted he “hated” having had to face his American compatriot.
The 19-year-old left-hander, ranked at 122 in the world, came through 2-4, 4-2, 1-4, 4-0, 4-1 in a semifinal which boasted tennis legend Rafael Nadal among the spectators.
“I can’t put it into words right now,” said Tien who hit 21 winners past the 41st-ranked Michelsen.
“I am really happy with the win but I hate it against him, but that is just how it goes. I started smiling when I came out here and saw him on the other side of the net, but I am really happy to get through and think I played really well.”
Tien will face Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, the lowest-ranked player in the draw at 145, who eased into the final by seeing off France’s Luca Van Assche 4-2, 4-2, 4-1.
Fonseca is the second youngest man to make the NextGen final after current world number one and two-time major winner Jannik Sinner who took the title in 2019.
The Brazilian has won all of his four matches in Jeddah this week, a run which included the biggest win of his career against 20th-ranked Arthur Fils of France.
“Today was a great match. I played really solidly,” said Fonseca after his one-hour victory.
“He didn’t have too many chances because I was playing so aggressively and making all the shots. There is one more match to go, and I hope I can for it.”
Sunday’s final will feature the two youngest players in the eight-man field with Fonseca having the advantage of already beating Tien during the group stages.
Learner Tien’s ‘victory royale’ sets him up for promising 2025
- American teenager to face good friend and compatriot Michelsen in Jeddah Next Gen semifinals
JEDDAH: As American teenager Learner Tien wrapped up a four-set victory over Arthur Fils on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, his next opponent, Alex Michelsen, rose to his feet on the sidelines to applaud his good friend and point to a message printed on the back of his sweatshirt: “Victory Royale” — a nod to the hours he and Tien have spent playing the video game Fortnite together.
“We play a lot together. So it’s kind of a joke,” Tien told Arab News in Jeddah on Friday. “Our agent got us tracksuits that say it on the back. We both got different colors.”
Tien and Michelsen share more than just a love for video games and matching tracksuits. They have trained at the same academy in Irvine, California for the past four years under the tutelage of Jay Leavitt and Eric Diaz, and share the same agent, Mats Merkel of IMG.
Their friendship will briefly take a backseat when they square off in Jeddah on Saturday evening, as they vie for a spot in the final at the prestigious 20-and-under tournament.
“It’s really cool I think,” said Tien. “I’ve been telling him that we are going to play at this tournament for a while. We’ve played, obviously, before, but never at the professional level. I think he’s 2-1 on me in singles. He tries to count doubles and say it’s 4-1, but I only count singles; so he’s up one on me right now.”
Despite missing three months of action earlier this season due to a fractured rib, Tien has amassed a 62-13 win-loss record over 2024 across all levels, including a trio of titles on the Challenger Tour.
He started the season ranked 473 in the world and hit a career-high mark of 114 last month to position himself as one of the top Next Gen players on the men’s professional circuit.
When he returned from his injury layoff in May, he won a stunning 28 matches in a row across six different tournaments, setting the tone for a strong finish to the season here in Jeddah.
“I think a lot of things changed for him mentally when he got injured,” Diaz told Arab News on Friday. “He matured a lot, started working a lot harder, taking things a little bit more seriously — not that he didn’t prior, but you could see the maturity level change. He diligently worked, diligently analyzed what he needed to get better at and he really went after it.”
This isn’t the first time Tien has benefitted from taking a break from tennis. When the pandemic shut down the tour in 2020, it came at a time where Tien needed some time away from the sport to be a regular young teenager, although ‘regular’ might not necessarily be the right word, since during that hiatus, Tien managed to graduate from high school at the age of 15.
At 16, he won his first of two USTA U18 National Championships and at 17 he attended the University of Southern California for a semester before deciding to turn pro.
Asked if starting high school when he was just 11 years old helped him make such big leaps in professional tennis as a teenager, Tien said: “I honestly did all that early just because my mom was a teacher, so she started me in school early. I really didn’t want to, but I’m glad she did it now. Obviously, it’s great to have all that stuff out of the way so I can just focus on tennis, like I’ve wanted to for a while. Having school, there was an incentive for me to play tennis instead. I’m truly grateful that she started me young, but I definitely didn’t enjoy it.”
Although Tien always knew he was good at tennis — a sport he was introduced to by his parents — he admitted he “didn’t love it” early on.
“(But) I thought I’d put so much time into it already, it would be kind of a waste just to stop. I thought that when I was 10 or 11. Thought that even more when I was 13 or 14, like, ‘Oh, I’ve played even longer now, it will be a bigger waste if I stop now,’” he reflected. “Then, I eventually found that love for it and it’s taken me to where I am today.”
He says the breaks he took during the COVID pandemic and his injury this year have helped him “reset” and made him appreciate the sport even more.
“Obviously taking time away from tennis, you end up missing it a little bit, so when you come back, you’re a little bit more motivated and it’s kind of easier to go out there day in, day out, just because you’ve been away for a while,” he said. “I think that really helped — especially this year. Coming back, I was a lot more motivated to practice harder and work on a lot of things that needed some work and it inevitably ended up helping me a lot.”
This is the first time Tien has competed in a tournament outside the US at the professional level and he’s excited to continue that trend when he heads to Hong Kong for the official start of his 2025 season, before flying to Melbourne for the Australian Open.
Previous Next Gen ATP Finals participants and champions have gone on to achieve great things on the tour, with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner both claiming Grand Slam titles and topping the world rankings not long after their participation.
“I think it’s cool to know that you’re following in their footsteps, going down a similar path to people that have had so much success — even recent winners having a lot of success,” said Tien.
“It’s definitely cool to feel like you’re doing the right thing and you’re taking the right steps to get to that level someday. But I don’t think there’s any pressure that comes with it.”
As he looks to enjoy his first full season at the ATP level in 2025, Tien is bracing himself for change, knowing he’ll be facing new challenges. Not only will the competition level get higher, he’ll also have to learn to adjust to a different calendar that features multiple surface changes, and a great deal of international travel.
His coach Diaz believes stepping up physically will be key for this next chapter of Tien’s tennis journey.
“The jump from the Futures to the Challengers, the difference is the physicality. And then the jump from the Challengers to the main tour is obviously physicality. Learner definitely has the footspeed, the hand speed… but continuing to develop and to become a man, he’s going to have to get stronger,” said Diaz.
Michelsen, who is a year older than Tien, has already made that leap to the ATP Tour and is ranked a career-high 41 in the world.
Diaz is aware both Tien and Michelsen will likely be facing off at tournaments more often moving forward, which will be an interesting dynamic given they share the same team.
“It’s really cool. Both Jay and I, it’s honestly something we never really thought would happen years ago when we started all of it. It’s a surreal moment,” said Diaz, looking ahead to the semifinal in Jeddah.
“Both of those boys have worked incredibly hard. They’ve pushed each other to get better and to improve. So to be on a stage like this now — and to have a guarantee one of them is in the final — is a pretty cool moment.
“Hopefully it does continue to happen, because I think that means they’re both continuing to push each other to get better. It would be an interesting thing. I’m not sure that either one of them would be there if it wasn’t for the other one. We’re big (believers that) iron sharpens iron. So it’s gone well.”
Rafael Nadal delights fans after landing in Jeddah for Next Gen ATP Finals
- The Spanish tennis legend toured the old city of Al-Balad and greeted a massive crowd at King Abdullah Sports City
JEDDAH: Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal began his three-day visit on Friday to Jeddah, where he took a tour of Al-Balad and met players and fans at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
The Spanish legend started his time in Jeddah by visiting Al-Balad and taking a tour of Jeddah Historic District before making his way to King Abdullah Sports City, where the Next Gen ATP Finals are being played.
Nadal led a meet-and-greet and attended a prize-giving ceremony at an U-14 ATF tournament, which was held at a stadium next to the main competition.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion met future stars of tennis competing in the Next Gen ATP Finals — Alex Michelsen, Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca — before thrilling the massive crowd in the fan zone, where he signed autographs and posed for selfies.
Nadal, who is working with the Saudi Tennis Federation to support its ambition of inspiring one million people to engage — from playing to administration — with tennis by 2030, continues his tour of Jeddah on Saturday by meeting Saudi Davis Cup players ahead of the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals.
Semifinal lineup set for Next Gen ATP finals in Jeddah
- Learner Tien stuns top seed Arthur Fils to face Alex Michelsen at King Abdullah Sports City
- Van Assche defeats Basavareddy to set up clash with undefeated Joao Fonseca in Saturday’s other match
JEDDAH: The semifinal lineup for the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF was confirmed on Friday following a dramatic conclusion to the group stage in Jeddah.
Sixth seed Learner Tien produced a sensational performance against top seed Arthur Fils to open the evening session with a 4-2, 4-2, 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (7-5) victory that created an electric atmosphere inside the King Abdullah Sports City stadium.
With only the winner advancing from the Blue Group to the semifinals, the tension was present from the first point, and it ensured a match full of drama and excitement. Despite being separated by 102 places in the PIF ATP Rankings, it was the lower-ranked Tien who seized control, securing early breaks in the first two sets to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
However, Fils refused to go down without a fight. The World No.20 from France, buoyed by the majority of the enthusiastic support, soon displayed his world-class ability to fight back and win the third set. A knife-edge fourth set eventually went to another tiebreak before Tien emerged victorious to continue a remarkably successful week in his first professional tournament outside the US.
The 19-year-old was supported by fellow American Alex Michelsen during his match against Fils, but the two friends will become opponents on Saturday when they play each other for a place in the final.
Tien said: “It was great from the moment we walked out. The crowd was great, the atmosphere was really good, and it carried throughout the match, so it was really fun playing out there.”
In the first of the two winner-takes-all group stage matches on Friday, sixth seed Luca Van Assche claimed the runner-up spot in the Red Group by defeating seventh seed Nishesh Basavareddy 3-4 (2-7), 4-3 (9-7), 4-2, 4-2 following an entertaining and competitive contest.
The 20-year-old Frenchman reached the last four on his debut in Jeddah last year and has now matched that result, having secured two wins out of three in the group stage.
Van Assche will next face Joao Fonseca on Saturday for a place in the final after the 18-year-old Brazilian topped the Blue Group with a marathon 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (10-8), 4-3 (7-5), 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (7-5) victory over the already-eliminated third seed Jakub Mensik in the last match of the day.
On playing Fonseca in the semifinals, Van Assche said: “He’s an unbelievable talent. I practiced with him four or five days ago, so he’s a tough opponent for sure. I know that I can beat him, so it will be a very good match — a tough one. But you practice to play these matches, so it’ll be cool.”
Day three got underway with second seed Alex Michelsen confirming his place as the winner of the Red Group after fourth seed Juncheng Shang retired from their match. The 20-year-old American was leading 4-1, 1-1 before China’s Shang called time early, having struggled with illness over the last two days.
Michelsen has enjoyed a successful return to Jeddah. He went winless on his debut appearance in 2023, but has been a leading star this year, winning all three of his group stage matches to ease into the semifinals.
Game Changers Falcons defeat Kites in World Tennis League thriller
- Falcons lead the way in table after second successive win
ABU DHABI: The Game Changers Falcons continued their impressive run in the World Tennis League’s third season, claiming a hard-fought 24-21 victory over the Kites in their match at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
The win marked the Falcons’ second successive triumph, placing them atop the points table with 53 points.
The TSL Hawks, victorious in the day’s earlier match, trail in second with 47 points, followed by the Kites with 46 points and the HonorFX Eagles with 34.
The evening began with a dramatic women’s doubles encounter as Simona Halep and Jasmine Paolini gave the Kites an early advantage, breaking the Falcons’ serve to lead 2-0.
However, the Falcons’ pairing of Elena Rybakina and Caroline Garcia regrouped to level the score and eventually pulled ahead to lead 5-3. The Kites mounted a comeback to tie the score at 6-6, forcing a tiebreak. Displaying resilience, Rybakina and Garcia prevailed, securing the set 7-6 and giving the Falcons an early lead.
In the women’s singles, Rybakina extended the Falcons’ momentum, dominating Halep throughout the set. With powerful and consistent play, Rybakina secured a 6-4 victory, pushing the Falcons’ overall lead to 13-10.
The mixed doubles match showcased intense competition, as Paolini and Nick Kyrgios faced off against Caroline Garcia and Denis Shapovalov. The set remained evenly matched at 5-5 before Paolini and Kyrgios broke serve and held their own to win 7-6, reducing the Falcons’ lead.
Then Andrey Rublev delivered a decisive performance for the Falcons. Building on his stellar form from the season opener, Rublev broke Kyrgios’ serve to lead 4-2. While Kyrgios attempted a comeback, Rublev held firm, closing out the set 6-4 and sealing the Falcons’ 24-21 win.
Speaking after the match, Kyrgios expressed his enthusiasm for the World Tennis League’s format.
He said: “Every game counts in the World Tennis League. When you look at the statistics, it doesn’t matter if a match seems lopsided — you want to fight for your team, and I love that.
“For me, this is the perfect return because it’s not overwhelming; (it’s) just the right amount of tennis. I also love the mixed doubles format. I never imagined seeing myself and Paolini on the same court, on the same side of the net, and that is really cool to witness.”
