Carlos Alcaraz, Frances Tiafoe and the best match of Wimbledon so far

The bare facts are that Carlos Alcaraz is through to the fourth round of Wimbledon and Frances Tiafoe is not, but that does not begin to explain the theatre that unfolded under Centre Court’s closed roof. The crowd hung on every ball in a match soundtracked by gasps and hollers, as the third and 29th seeds put on a show. Grown adults who, three hours earlier, had never seen Tiafoe hold a tennis racket found themselves roaring “Get him, Frances!” with both lungs, veins popping from their neck, urging the American to push the reigning champion further and further.

He did, forcing Alcaraz to dig into his reserves of energy and creativity, but Alcaraz reminded everyone just how deep they run, dominating the fifth set to win 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Alcaraz and Tiafoe are both elite scurriers and it made for a thrilling combination, producing points full of fun and imagination and unfathomable angles. The match contained every conceivable shot: hot dogs, sliding volleys, the sort of pinball rallies at the net usually reserved for doubles, lobs that landed on the baseline with a plume of white powder.

This was a love-in on Centre Court: the crowd supported both players and the players appreciated each other. They have developed a friendship off the court, grounded in a shared joy, grown by a five-set thriller at the US Open semi-finals two years ago. In the build-up to Wimbledon, Tiafoe was asked a series of quickfire questions by a tennis publication including who he would want with him in the trenches. “Carlos Alcaraz,” he replied.

The build-up had been filled with playful fighting talk. “I’m going for him!” Alcaraz said on Thursday, to which Tiafoe responded with a grin: “I’m going to be ready for a war.”

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Tiafoe has endured a tough year by his own admission and said he had been “losing to clowns” after slipping out of the top 10 last year to No 28. “I took the game for granted and got a little too comfortable,” he said this week. Yet here he was focused and energetic, skilful and increasingly clever with his decisions on when to come to the net.

Alcaraz raced into the lead with an early break and it seemed like this would be another routine win for the three-time grand slam champion. But when Tiafoe instantly broke back, a familiar murmur went around Centre Court, the sense of a match brewing.

At 5-5, the American stopped a flowing rally to challenge a deep Alcaraz backhand and immediately held his face over his hands, shocked, like a man who’d sent a text to the wrong person. Sure enough, the big screen showed the ball landing plum on the line, but the mistake seemed to stir Tiafoe. He won three successive points at the net to earn a break point, reacting to Alcaraz’s baseline power with volley after volley until finally he put one away, and he clinched the break with a huge return before holding for 7-5.

Through the second set, Alcaraz started to punish Tiafoe’s advances, once with a perfectly placed lob which landed an inch inside the baseline, then with a whipped forehand pass down the line that left Tiafoe reaching for thin air. One drop shot brought Tiafoe rushing to the net, where he slipped on the wet grass and collapsed onto his backside. Alcaraz won the point, rounded the net to pick up his opponent, then killed off the set with a backhand cross-court winner to level the match.

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At 3-3 in the third, they offered up perhaps the best game of all, full of ingenuity. Alcaraz sprinted to reach impossible balls but to no avail: he whipped a forehand a couple of centimetres wide of the left tramline to give up a break point, and the game ended when he sent a hot-dog lob just long. Tiafoe roared, the crowd joined in, and a few games later he closed out the set to lead 2-1.

For a brief moment, it seemed like Tiafoe might see out a memorable victory when, at 4-4 in the fourth, Alcaraz found himself in trouble, 0-30 down on his serve. There he produced the kind of tennis great players do under pressure, winning four points in a row, topped off with a pinpoint ace, before arching his back and screaming into the humid air.

The fourth-set tie-break was wracked with giddy tension. Alcaraz raced clear with two spectacular shots that drew shrieks as he whipped away winners and flexed his bicep. At 5-1 down, Tiafoe responded brilliantly, baiting Alcaraz with a drop shot and executing a perfectly placed lob, like he’d drawn up a play on the whiteboard. But Alcaraz won the next two points to force a decider.

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Alcaraz has a phenomenal five-set record – now 12-1 – and it was clear why. At the start of the set, he sprung off his chair like a wound-up toy as Tiafoe hauled his frame to the baseline, drinking in gulps of air. It had been almost four hours and he was starting to feel them. At 1-1, Alcaraz earned himself two break points and only needed one, pulling his opponent around the court before unleashing a crisp cross-court backhand winner on the run.

He rushed through the final set, hitting some sumptuous winners along the way. They held a long embrace at the net, and the deafening noise as Tiafoe left the arena might have at least provided some small consolation: he lost the match but won 15,000 fans on Centre Court.