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There were 30 direct serves, a specialist record for a player who is not distinguished by having a hit on the serve that points out the differences.

A magnificent way of adapting to the medium was that of

Carlos Alcaraz

, who, however, suffered more than expected to defeat J

an-Lennart Struff

in the first round of

Wimbledon

.

Finer in the final stretch, the Spanish prevailed 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3) and 6-4, in four hours and eight minutes.

It was an accelerated learning of tennis on grass, with the consequent tension in each ball, with the hyperbolic penalty of any slip.

Struff, who had defeated him last year in the third round at Roland Garros, had him in the corner on several occasions

.

Carlos played Carlos in the sixth game of the fourth set, coming back from 0-30 with four consecutive aces.

Under the roof that covered court 1 due to the rain at the beginning of the day, the champion in Cincinnati and Madrid also had to overcome four lost

break

options in a ninth game that left after 10 minutes.

He won the tiebreaker and took the match to a fifth set.

Jan-Lennard Struff is one of those players who have weapons to seek their fortune on the grass.

Do not look at his back or trust too much his decline in the ranking, which is due in part to successive physical problems.

He wears number 155, but the surface can play on his side, even though he has lost five of his eight appearances at the All England Club from the start and has a sequence of four inning losses in the majors. .

He looks for the network at the slightest opportunity and tries to turn the games into a telegraphic affair.

Alcaraz, who did not take advantage of his first break

balls, was able to check it soon

, lost his serve in the third game and had to save a 1-4 ball.

He did not prevent after the set left him.

little baggage on grass

With five titles, four this year, two of them Masters 1000, and two appearances in the Grand Slam quarterfinals, the most recent at Roland Garros, where he fell to

Alexander Zverev

, Alcaraz starts as the fifth seed in his second appearance in Wimbledon.

The territory, you know, is different from any other.

The Murcian played his third official match on the surface this Monday, after losing last year to Daniil Medvedev in the second round.

Absent at Queen's to care for his right elbow, he entered Struff with only two

pins

on the surface, resulting in losses to

Tiafoe

and

Ruud

.

The 32-year-old German served better when he played and saved the first six

break points

.

Alcaraz had a hard time interpreting his services.

He generated 14 break point opportunities throughout the match, of which he only converted two.

He went to the seventh, after failing to capitalize on one in game ten that would have already given him the set, when he converted a big forehand crosscourt return to equalize, taking the second set 7-5.

He had escaped a sticky open serve situation after committing a double fault and facing a break ball at 3-3.

In a confrontation always on the edge, with constant alternatives, the outcome was better, despite also giving up the third set.

"I still can't believe it. It was the best game of my life on serve," he concluded, surprised by the bumper crop of

aces.

At 19 years old,

it was only his sixth match of him consuming all five sets.

He has only lost one, to Matteo Berrettini, at the last Australian Open.

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