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Images from Day 6 of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in London on Saturday.
Alcaraz goes through the gears to subdue Jarry
For all the waspish energy and venomous hitting, it was Carlos Alcaraz's ability to turn up the dial under pressure that saw him come through a testing encounter with Nicolas Jarry and move safely into the Wimbledon fourth round on Saturday.
The world number one was frequently on the ropes against the imposing Chilean but always managed to find another gear as he wrapped up a 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3, 7-5 victory on Centre Court to set up a tantalising encounter with either Alexander Zverev or Matteo Berrettini.
What had looked like being a routine outing for Alcaraz when he claimed the first set after a solitary break, quickly turned into something more troublesome as Jarry raced into a 4-1 lead in the second.
While Alcaraz clawed back parity, the Chilean served like his life depended on it to level the match in the tiebreak.
Alcaraz got his nose in front once more but if he hoped to have dealt a decisive blow by winning the third set, Jarry had other ideas, racing into a 3-0 lead at the start of the fourth.
That, however, brought out the best in the Spaniard who finished off the contest with two further breaks, wrapping up the match with two massive serves that were just too hot for Jarry to handle.
Rune outlasts Davidovich Fokina in thriller
Sixth seed Holger Rune overcame Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-8) in a gruelling battle of attrition on Saturday to advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time in his career.
With absolutely nothing to separate the pair after nearly four hours out on Court Three, the match came down to a final-set tiebreak where it was the more experienced Davidovich Fokina who cracked under pressure.
With the tiebreak level at 8-8, Davidovich Fokina attempted an underhand serve which saw Rune's eyes light up before he smashed a vicious winner past the Spaniard to set up match point.
The Dane then prevailed in the roller coaster encounter when Davidovich Fokina found the net on the final point as an exhausted but ecstatic Rune lay flat on his back on the grass, soaking in the applause.
Sabalenka back in the groove
Aryna Sabalenka was back on her A-game on Saturday as she kept up her perfect record against Russian Anna Blinkova with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the third round of Wimbledon.
A day after the Belarusian was left screaming in frustration as little-known Varvara Gracheva threatened to trample her Wimbledon dream, the Australian Open champion was back to her sublime ball-striking best as she extended her record over Blinkova to 3-0.
In a match between two players who were both barred from competing at the All England Club last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sabalenka made her experience count against an opponent who has never reached the fourth round of a major.
She broke Blinkova three times to take the first set and when she pinned back the Russian with some thunderous returns to take a 4-2 lead in the second, the world number 40 was left shaking her head in resignation.
If Sabalenka thought Blinkova was holding up the white flag, she was sorely mistaken because in the very next game Blinkova gave the second seed the run around for over 14 minutes.
In a nerve-shredding game featuring eight deuces, four break points for Blinkova, aces and double faults, Sabalenka hung tough despite all the drama to emerge unscathed for a 5-2 lead.
Two games later a searing ace sealed victory and a clash with another Russian, 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Haddad Maia advances to fourth round
Beatriz Haddad Maia moved into the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time in her career with an emphatic 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sorana Cirstea on Saturday, a minute before play was suspended due to rain.
Haddad Maia, who became the first Brazilian woman to reach the top 10 in the WTA rankings after her semi-final run at Roland Garros a month ago, shot out of the blocks on a cloudy morning to convert two early breaks and take a 3-0 lead.
Cirstea could be heard urging herself to "Fight, fight, fight," and although she fought back with a break of her own, Haddad Maia attacked the Romanian's weaker second serve to break once again and serve out the opening set.
Unable to match the power of the taller Haddad Maia on long rallies, a frustrated Cirstea had animated conversations with her coach between games as she sought answers but found few solutions as the Brazilian went 4-0 up in the second set.
Backed into a corner, the 33-year-old Romanian finally got on the board in the second set when she induced a rare unforced error off Haddad Maia's forehand before serving to stay in the match.
But that only delayed the inevitable as Haddad Maia ground Cirstea down in her final service game and clinched victory on her first match point. And just in time as the rain came down, the players scrambled off, and the covers came on under grey London skies.
Kvitova downs Serbian qualifier to reach last 16
Petra Kvitova reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for only the second time since triumphing at the All England Club nine years ago with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic in a rain-disrupted encounter on Saturday.
The Czech ninth seed needed four set points to seal the first set as menacing dark clouds hovered over Court Two, with her 225th ranked opponent slapping a service return long.
At 1-1 in the second set, Stevanovic was left rather agitated when Hawkeye confirmed she had hit an ace but the umpire ruled she would have to replay the point since the linesperson's call would have prevented Kvitova from attempting to return the ball.
A clearly distracted Stevanovic struggled to forget the incident and ended up being broken after Kvitova's service return kissed the line.
Although the 28-year-old, who had beaten former world number one Karolina Pliskova in the opening round, broke back in the next game, she struggled to cope with Kvitova's powerful attacking game and dropped her serve again to trail 2-3.
However, Kvitova, who also won the grasscourt major in 2011, saw her serve falter and she allowed Stevanovic to take a 5-4 lead as the heavens opened over southwest London.
Following a two-hour rain break, Kvitova appeared determined to make her greater firepower count, although the final game turned into an almighty tussle of wills.
Stevanovic, who overcame a life-threatening cyst on her liver when she was 21, stretched the Czech to six deuces, three break points and even won the longest rally of the match, capping off a breathtaking 20-shot exchange with a forehand winner into the corner.
After watching three match points disappear thanks to Stevanovic's dogged resilience, Kvitova finally triumphed on her fourth attempt to seal a last-16 showdown with either 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu or Tunisian sixth seed Ons Jabeur.
"It's been a while since I was in the second week of Wimbledon, so I am very happy," said the 33-year-old, who is on an eight match winning streak after winning the grasscourt title in Berlin.
"I love playing on grass and when my serve is working well I love it even more."
Medvedev survives Fucsovics onslaught
Daniil Medvedev has been making up for lost time as he downed Hungary's Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to match his best ever showing at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round on Saturday.
A year after being banned from playing at the All England Club following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow-born Medvedev survived a wayward opening set to topple an opponent who had won their only previous meeting at a major.
When the 67th-ranked Fucsovics gave Medvedev the runaround in the opening set, with the Russian misfiring his returns time and again, visions of his 2020 Roland Garros first round win over the third seed must have flashed through his mind.
But Medvedev trampled on those dreams in the fourth game of the second set, when he broke Fucsovics to love after the Hungarian double-faulted to surrender his serve.
Playing under a closed Court One roof as the rain came down on a leafy southwest London, both players entertained the crowd with some acrobatic shot-making.
Fucsovics would have made Boris Becker proud with a couple of his diving volley winners and slam-dunk smashes, while Medvedev hit a stupendous crosscourt winner on the run after chasing down a drop shot from well behind the baseline.
Once Medvedev had taken a two-sets-to-one lead by banging down an unreturnable serve, Fucsovics needed an injury time out to get his right ankle manipulated and strapped up by the trainer.
He got back on his feet and even earned a break point in the eighth game of the fourth set. But once he missed his chance to make it 4-4, his game quickly unravelled and Medvedev reached the last 16 of a major for the first time this year by firing down an unreturnable serve.
