At the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in London on Wednesday, the top seed Carlos Alcaraz will face sixth seed Holger Rune in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Though the match will be the last on the center court on the 10th of this year’s edition. World No. 1 Alcaraz advanced to the quarterfinal stage after another hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win over 2021 runner-up Matteo Berretini. In the third round match, he was also pushed hard by Nicolás Jarry.
Alcaraz has improved rapidly on grass this season, winning his first title at a tune-up event at Queen’s. Like the Spaniard, the last two rounds have been extremely difficult for Roon from Denmark. He defeated 31st seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) in the third round before defeating 21st seed Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16. He was defeated by 3. -6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4), 6-3 score.
What should we know?
Alcaraz vs. Rune is the first men’s singles quarterfinal in a grass major contested by two players under the age of 21 in the Open Era. Both players are very fast. While the Spaniard has a formidable forehand, for Rune, it’s the backhand that hurts.
However, the record is 1-1 between Alcaraz and Rune, but those matches did not take place in a slam or a grass. In the group stage of the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals, they met for the first time, which features a different scoring system, where Alcaraz won 4-3, 4-2, 4-0.
Therefore, the last time they met was during the quarterfinals of the 2022 Paris Masters, where Roon won the first set 6-3, and the second set went to a tiebreaker. However, Alcaraz was forced to withdraw due to injury, which also caused him to miss the ATP Tour Finals the following week.