Carlos Alcaraz extends Wimbledon streak to 18 wins with four-set victory over Andrey Rublev

LONDON (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz’s latest up-and-down Wimbledon performance began with a dropped set. Later Sunday, he was in danger of getting broken to fall further behind in the third. And then, as he so often does, Alcaraz seized the moment, produced some magic and moved closer to a third consecutive title at the All England Club.

Alcaraz stretched his winning streak in the grass-court Grand Slam tournament to 18 matches—and his current unbeaten run across all events to 22—by coming back to beat No. 14 seed Andrey Rublev 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 at Centre Court to return to the quarterfinals.

In this fortnight’s first matchup between two men ranked in the top 20, No. 2 Alcaraz brought out his best while down 3-2 in the third set. First, he needed to fend off a break chance for Rublev, doing so with a forehand passing winner.

After eventually holding to 3-all, Alcaraz earned his own break opportunity and didn’t let Rublev escape. On an eight-stroke exchange, Alcaraz sprinted from one corner of the court to the other and, with a stomp of his right foot and a bit of a slide, he flicked a cross-court forehand winner.

Oh, did he relish that one. Alcaraz spread his arms wide, pointed to his right ear and basked in the crowd’s loud adulation, the noise bouncing off the underside of the stadium’s closed roof.

Rublev sat in his sideline chair, looked up at his guest box and made a sarcastic “OK” hand signal. Just 10 minutes later, that set belong to Alcaraz, who will face 2022 semifinalist Cam Norrie—the last British player in singles—on Tuesday for a berth in the final four.

“I always said that it’s just about belief in yourself. It doesn’t matter that you are one-set-to-love down,” Alcaraz said. “Tennis is a sport that can change in just one point. One point can change the match completely, turn around everything.”

The 61st-ranked Norrie, who played college tennis at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over qualifier Nicolas Jarry, who hit 46 aces. Norrie had a chance to close things out much earlier than he did but failed to convert a match point while ahead 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker.

The other men’s quarterfinal Tuesday will be No. 5 Taylor Fritz vs. No. 17 Karen Khachanov. Fritz, last year’s US Open runner-up, had a short day because his opponent, Jordan Thompson, quit after about 40 minutes with back and leg injuries that he’d been dealing with throughout the tournament.

Alcaraz is just 22 and already owns five Grand Slam trophies, the latest arriving in June at the French Open. He hasn’t lost a match anywhere since April 20 against Holger Rune in the final at Barcelona.

There have been lapses, of course, including when Alcaraz fell behind by two sets against No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the final at Roland-Garros. Or when the Spaniard lost four points in a row after going up 5-3 in the opening tiebreaker against Rublev.

He hasn’t been as close-to-perfect as others over the past week: Sinner, No. 10 Ben Shelton and No. 22 Flavio Cobolli haven’t dropped a set heading into their fourth-round contests.

So, sure, Alcaraz has ceded five sets already, but all that matters is that he hasn’t lost a match.