Alcaraz survives Fognini; Eala living ‘big dreams’
LONDON—Carlos Alcaraz couldn’t understand why Fabio Fognini was retiring.
“I don’t know why it’s his last Wimbledon,” Alcaraz said later, “because the level he has shown, he can still play three or four more years. Unbelievable.”
The 38-year-old Fognini came close to a dream Wimbledon start, working hard for 4-1/2 hours and forcing Alcaraz to squeeze out every last drop of greatness to forge a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 victory in the first round.
“Didn’t expect to play five sets against him,” Fognini said. “I had my chance.”
Filipino ace Alex Eala, on the other hand, did live out her dream late Tuesday evening (Manila time). Regardless of the result of her match against defending champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round, Eala got to live her dream.
“It’s such a privilege, that is the court to be on,” Eala told Olympic.com of the chance to play the defending champion on Centre Court. “My favorite Slam is Wimbledon, and when I dreamed of the big dreams when I was younger, it was on that court. I’m living the dream.”
Eala made her Wimbledon debut on the heels of a painful loss in the Eastbourne Open final, where she lost to Australian Maya Joint after making history as the first Filipino to reach a WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) final
“Tennis is always like this, it’s always the next week you always have something. Although this is on a bigger scale then what normally I’m used to, I have some experience when it comes to moving on and focusing on the next thing,” Eala said.
The No. 2-seeded Alcaraz is 22, already a five-time Grand Slam champion, including his latest at the French Open three weeks ago, and is currently on a career-best 19-match winning streak.
Fognini, meanwhile, has never been past the third round at the All England Club in 15 appearances and reached the quarterfinals at any major tournament just once, way back at the 2011 French Open. He entered Monday ranked 138th and 0-6 this year.
But there were times on Monday when Alcaraz appeared to be something less than his best, far from the form he displayed during his epic five-set, 5-1/2-hour comeback victory over No. 1 Jannik Sinner for the championship at Roland-Garros.
Alcaraz double-faulted nine times. He faced a hard-to-believe 21 break points. He made more unforced errors, 62, than winners, 52.
He chalked some of that up to jitters.
“It doesn’t matter the winning streak that I have right now, that I’ve been playing great on grass, that I’ve been preparing really well,” said Alcaraz, who beat Novak Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals. “Wimbledon is different. I could feel today that I was really nervous at the beginning.”
Next for Alcaraz will be a match on Wednesday against Oliver Tarvet, a 21-year-old British qualifier who plays college tennis at the University of San Diego and is ranked 733rd.
Still, Alcaraz said: “I have to improve in the next round.”
