On Monday evening, Carlos Alcaraz‘s Wimbledon aspirations were hanging by a thread. Nonetheless, the 19-year-old made it to the second round at Wimbledon for the second time.

In a grueling three hours and 34 minutes on Court 1, the 19-year-old withstood an offensive onslaught from Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff to win 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.

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Alcaraz, who was competing at Wimbledon for the second time, increased his effort and dug his heels in as he darted around the baseline to cling to points while finding moments of magic in crucial moments to extend his five-set record to 5-1.

The Spaniard kept himself in the match with a spectacular backhand passing stroke at 0/2 in the fourth-set tie-break, before raising the roof with his shot-making at the end of the fifth set to move to 1-1 in his ATP Head2Head series with Stuff.

Alcaraz will next face Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Italian Fabio Fognini in his bid to reach the third round for the first time at SW19.

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Last year, World No. 7 was defeated in the second round by Daniil Medvedev. On the other hand, Alcaraz is a different proposition now, having won a Tour-leading four tour-level trophies in 2022, with his win over Struff his 33rd match triumph of the season.

Struff surged out of the blocks in his fourth grass-court event of the season, beating Alcaraz in the third game to take the board early. The German attempted to take the ball early and commanded behind his forehand, blasting 17 winners in the set to take the lead.

In the second set, Alcaraz showed his battling spirit by upping his intensity and variation to draw Struff around and level. In the third set, the German swiftly found his stride, earning 100% (13/13) points behind his first serve to retake the lead.

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With the fourth set heading to a tie-break, Struff appeared to be on his way to win when he promptly seized a 2/0 lead. Alcaraz, on the other hand, refused to be defeated, finding a remarkable pass to establish a foothold before increasing the depth on his return to force a fifth set.

With confidence on his side, Alcaraz continued to attack in the decider and was rewarded with the key break in the ninth game before retaining serve to win.

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Struff was looking for his second Top 10 Grand Slam victory, having defeated then-World No. 7 Andrey Rublev at Roland Garros in 2022. The World No. 155, who has previously reached the third round of Wimbledon, was forced to withdraw from the European clay swing suffering a right foot ailment.

Despite his defeat, the German demonstrated that he was reverting to his best with an excellent effort against Alcaraz.